Malic Acid
Malic Acid carries a source-backed screening score of 5/5 and appears in 11,229 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Safe.”
Source-backed answer
Malic Acid appears in 11,229 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Safe.” 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.
- 11,229
- catalogued products
- #103
- usage rank of 247,206
- 2,154
- named brands represented
- 56%
- 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.
Malic Acid: top-decile catalog footprint (#103 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #103
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 56%
- Averaged label depth puts Malic Acid in the lower half of the list (56% of list length, mean slot 12.9). 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.
How to use this page
Audit the co-occurring flags first
57.4% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Malic Acid as the trigger. Open records such as 1,000mg Vitamin C Pink Lemonade; 10 fl oz 100% juice - apple; 100% apple cider and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 72.7/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 56% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
57.4% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 11016 of 11192 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.
What else is usually in the same product as Malic Acid
Across the 11,229 products on this site that list 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. Red 40 shows up about 5.2x more often with Malic Acid than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Malic Acid products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | 3,179 | 28.3% | 5.4% |
| Blue 1 | 2,519 | 22.4% | 4.2% |
| Yellow 5 | 2,112 | 18.8% | 4.8% |
| Sucralose | 1,404 | 12.5% | 2.7% |
| Yellow 6 | 1,225 | 10.9% | 3.4% |
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
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 Malic Acid
Products Containing Malic Acid
High-volume slice (16 of 11,229) for products naming Malic Acid:
High-volume peers for Malic Acid beside “Pectin”
High-volume peers for Malic Acid: 11,229 products, mean screening score 72.7/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Pectin · Filtered Water · Turmeric. Axes below stay distinct so count-neighbors do not duplicate score-neighbors.
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 Malic Acid page
Start from Malic Acid's 11,229 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.
- Check the listed products containing Malic Acid before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Open product sample
- Compare Malic Acid with a peer such as “Pectin” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Open a peer record
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. 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 Malic Acid sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
57.4% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Malic Acid is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Malic Acid scores 5/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Safe" with FDA SAFFA status "GRAS". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Malic Acid? ▼
Malic Acid ranks in the top decile by product count (#103 of 247,206), appearing in 11,229 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Malic Acid serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Malic Acid is recorded as a flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, ph control agent, synergist in source technical-effect fields. In high co-flag products, that function coexists with other caution-marked components — inspect the full list rather than isolating this role.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (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.