L-malic Acid
L-malic Acid carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 92 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
L-malic Acid appears in 92 catalogued products. CSPI has no rating attached in this snapshot. Its FDA SAFFA status is “GRAS.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 92
- catalogued products
- #3,310
- usage rank of 247,206
- 36
- named brands represented
- 47%
- 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.
L-malic Acid sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#3,310 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #3,310
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 41 others that also appear in exactly 92 products, listed in more products than 98.7% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 47%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 92 products listing it (mean slot 8.4). L-malic Acid usually falls in the upper half of the list; this position does not measure its amount because source formatting, compound ingredients and labeling exceptions vary.
Computed from parsed product ingredient lists (Open Food Facts). The ranking covers 247,206 ingredients that appear at least once. Neither usage rank nor label depth is a safety clearance.
What this page can and cannot answer
Use prevalence before concern
Only 8.7% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: L-malic Acid spans 36 named brands and is led by the Dietary supplements group. Start with ACTIVE Essential Amino Acid Blend; Arizona; BULK Clinically Dosed Pre-Training Formula when comparing real formulations. Because the flagged component may be something else, neither the low co-occurrence rate nor the 98.8/100 product average proves this ingredient safe.
36 named brands carry this ingredient
The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 90 of 91 classified products, leaving a meaningful remainder elsewhere. This breadth is why the page reports label depth, category, and product examples separately. Those dimensions help locate comparable products; combining them into a stronger safety claim would hide the variation the catalog actually contains.
Next check: compare label position across two brands before treating prevalence as equivalent exposure.
What else is usually in the same product as L-malic Acid
Across the 92 products on this site that list L-malic Acid, 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. Sucralose shows up about 2.8x more often with L-malic Acid than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of L-malic Acid products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sucralose | 7 | 7.6% | 2.7% |
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.
Function
ANTIMICROBIAL AGENT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, PH CONTROL AGENT, SYNERGIST
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 L-malic Acid
Products Containing L-malic Acid
High-volume slice (16 of 92) for products naming L-malic Acid:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “100% Whole Grain Wheat Flour”)
Top-decile company for L-malic Acid: 92 listings averaging 98.8/100. Nearest count peers include “100% Whole Grain Wheat Flour”, “Added To Maintain Color”, “With Alkali”.
Similar product count
Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).
Similar mean product score
Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.
Next steps from the L-malic Acid page
Start from L-malic Acid's 92 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.
- Review the sampled product records that list L-malic Acid to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Browse linked labels
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Open a peer record
- See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. Open methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the source ratings say about L-malic Acid? ▼
L-malic Acid has a PlainFoodSafe ingredient-screening score of 3/5. FDA SAFFA status: GRAS. With only 8.7% co-flag overlap in linked products, prevalence and label position often matter as much as the registry labels — and none of them establish product-level safety.
Which product shelves show up most often with L-malic Acid? ▼
L-malic Acid ranks in the top decile by product count (#3,310 of 247,206), appearing in 92 indexed products led by Dietary supplements. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What does L-malic Acid do in food? ▼
L-malic Acid is recorded as a antimicrobial agent, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, ph control agent, synergist in source technical-effect fields.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (L-malic Acid). 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.