Includes Red 40
Includes Red 40 appears in 319 indexed US food products. No FDA SAFFA status or CSPI rating is attached in this snapshot, so this page reports prevalence rather than a safety verdict.
What the data can answer
Includes Red 40 appears in 319 catalogued products, but this snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to it. This page therefore cannot answer whether the ingredient is safe from those sources. It can show how often it occurs, where it tends to sit on labels, and which kinds of products contain it.
- 319
- catalogued products
- #1,423
- usage rank of 247,206
- 46
- named brands represented
- 69%
- average depth down ingredient lists
Catalog prevalence comes from Open Food Facts ingredient lists. FDA SAFFA and CSPI Chemical Cuisine labels are shown only when the source record contains them.
Reading this ingredient record
Audit the co-occurring flags first
71.5% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Includes Red 40 as the trigger. Open records such as Candy Cans; Cherry Frosted; Chocolate candies and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 51.3/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 69% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
71.5% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 319 of 319 NOVA-tagged records. That describes the surrounding products, not the substance. For a useful comparison, hold category and processing level constant, then inspect which named component changes alongside the caution flag; otherwise the product mix will confound the ingredient question.
Next check: open the lowest-scoring linked formulation and locate the exact caution-marked component.
Includes Red 40: top-decile catalog footprint (#1,423 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #1,423
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 6 others that also appear in exactly 319 products, listed in more products than 99.4% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 69%
- Averaged label depth puts Includes Red 40 in the lower half of the list (69% of list length, mean slot 22.3). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
Derived by this site from the ingredient lists of every catalogued product (Open Food Facts), recomputed on each data refresh. 247,206 ingredients have at least one appearance and are ranked here. Usage and list position describe prevalence, not safety.
What else is usually in the same product as Includes Red 40
Across the 319 products on this site that list Includes Red 40, these flagged additives appear alongside it most often. The comparison column is how often each one appears across every product with a parsed ingredient list, so the two figures are measured over the same set. Blue 1 shows up about 16.7x more often with Includes Red 40 than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Includes Red 40 products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue 1 | 224 | 70.2% | 4.2% |
| Yellow 5 | 136 | 42.6% | 4.8% |
| Yellow 6 | 126 | 39.5% | 3.4% |
| Red 40 | 117 | 36.7% | 5.4% |
| Blue 2 | 115 | 36.1% | 0.9% |
Co-occurrence describes what manufacturers formulate together. It is not a claim that these additives interact, and it carries no regulatory meaning. Counted over products with parsed ingredient lists; Open Food Facts, 2026-09-01.
How do the sampled products compare?
Each point is one of the 16 sampled products listed below: its overall safety score against how many separately flagged ingredients its label carries. Bubble size is the number of ingredient rows the label actually resolved to.
Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Includes Red 40
Products Containing Includes Red 40
16 busy labels from the 319 indexed products that list Includes Red 40:
High-volume peers for Includes Red 40 beside “Ammonium Chloride”
Includes Red 40 sits among other busy catalog rows (319 products, mean score 51.3/100). Nearest count peers include “Ammonium Chloride”, “Barley Flakes”, “Glyceryl Monostearate”. Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.
Similar product count
Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).
Similar mean product score
Score-axis peers only, mean screening score among ingredients with ≥50 scored products, not a second count list.
Next steps from the Includes Red 40 page
319 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Includes Red 40 are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing Includes Red 40 before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. See listed products
- Compare Includes Red 40 with a peer such as “Ammonium Chloride” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Compare a peer
- See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I read safety signals when Includes Red 40 sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
71.5% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Includes Red 40 is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Includes Red 40? ▼
Includes Red 40 ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,423 of 247,206), appearing in 319 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Includes Red 40 so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Includes Red 40 appears in 319 products (#1,423 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Includes Red 40). Safety ratings: CSPI Chemical Cuisine; product presence: Open Food Facts via PlainFoodSafe (September 2026). Figures are computed from those sources, no editor-typed counts. Methodology · State regulations.