L-theanine
L-theanine appears in 387 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
L-theanine appears in 387 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.
- 387
- catalogued products
- #1,231
- usage rank of 247,206
- 156
- named brands represented
- 48%
- 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
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 176 of 387 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 7-Eleven Select Fusion Energy Drink Rockin' Rainbow; 7-Select Fusion Pulse; Active Creatine For Her to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to L-theanine itself. The ingredient most often sits in the upper half of the list, and Beverages and beverages preparations supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
176 of 387 linked records have some flagged component
All 354 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 0–100 score spread more informative than the average alone: investigate the low end, identify the actual flagged row, and compare it with a similar unflagged formulation before drawing a conclusion.
Next check: pair one flagged product with a similar unflagged product from the same shelf category.
L-theanine: top-decile catalog footprint (#1,231 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #1,231
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.5% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 48%
- Averaged label depth puts L-theanine in the upper half of the list (48% of list length, mean slot 9.6). 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 L-theanine
Across the 387 products on this site that list L-theanine, 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 16.4x more often with L-theanine than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of L-theanine products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sucralose | 171 | 44.2% | 2.7% |
| Acesulfame Potassium | 93 | 24% | 1.8% |
| Monk fruit extract | 27 | 7% | 0.5% |
| Red 40 | 8 | 2.1% | 5.4% |
| Blue 1 | 6 | 1.6% | 4.2% |
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 L-theanine
Products Containing L-theanine
A sample of 16 high-volume listings among the 387 indexed products containing L-theanine:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Cheddar Cheese Powder”)
Top-decile company for L-theanine: 387 listings averaging 88.3/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Cheddar Cheese Powder; Source Of Zinc; Sweetcream Buttermilk.
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.
Using the L-theanine evidence
387 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on L-theanine are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Open the product sample for L-theanine and read how the term sits on real packages. Open product sample
- Compare L-theanine with a peer such as “Cheddar Cheese Powder” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Open a peer record
- See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. See source joins
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does L-theanine carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. This snapshot does not attach a standalone FDA/CSPI verdict to L-theanine. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with L-theanine? ▼
L-theanine ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,231 of 247,206), appearing in 387 indexed products led by Beverages and beverages preparations. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is L-theanine so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet L-theanine appears in 387 products (#1,231 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (L-theanine). 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.