Mannitol

Mannitol carries a source-backed screening score of 4/5 and appears in 571 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Cut Back.”

Source-backed answer

Mannitol appears in 571 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Cut Back.” 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.

571
catalogued products
#973
usage rank of 247,206
75
named brands represented
45%
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.

Mannitol sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#973 / 247,206)

Usage rank
#973
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 1 other that also appear in exactly 571 products, listed in more products than 99.6% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
45%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 571 products listing it (mean slot 7.9). Mannitol 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.

Ranks use Open Food Facts ingredient rows on this site’s refresh cycle. 247,206 ingredients with ≥1 product appearance enter the ranking. Prevalence and list depth are catalog facts, not toxicology.

Reading this ingredient record

Audit the co-occurring flags first

93.5% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Mannitol as the trigger. Open records such as Air heads blue raspberry gum; All American Veggie Burgers; allergy medications and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 36.6/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 45% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

93.5% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 571 of 571 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 Mannitol

Across the 571 products on this site that list Mannitol, 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. Acesulfame Potassium shows up about 41.9x more often with Mannitol than in the catalogue at large.

Acesulfame Potassium: +73.7ppAcesulfame Potassium+73.7ppAspartame: +72.3ppAspartame+72.3ppBHT: +69.8ppBHT+69.8ppSucralose: +40.2ppSucralose+40.2ppBlue 1: +28.9ppBlue 1+28.9pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Mannitol products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

Unit: percentage points above/below baseline. Data current as of September 2026.

Acesulfame Potassium
73.7pp
Aspartame
72.3pp
BHT
69.8pp
Sucralose
40.2pp
Blue 1
28.9pp
Additive Shared products Share of Mannitol products Share of all products
Acesulfame Potassium 431 75.5% 1.8%
Aspartame 418 73.2% 0.9%
BHT 405 70.9% 1.1%
Sucralose 245 42.9% 2.7%
Blue 1 189 33.1% 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.

Function

ANTICAKING AGENT OR FREE-FLOW AGENT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, FORMULATION AID, LUBRICANT OR RELEASE AGENT, NON-NUTRITIVE SWEETENER, SOLVENT OR VEHICLE

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 Mannitol

Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 16 entities by Safety score (X) and Flagged ingredients on label (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. High score, still flaggedLow score, more flaggedHigh score, fewer flaggedLow score, fewer flagged 050100150 02468 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Mannitol
Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine.

High-volume peers for Mannitol beside “Grapes”

High-volume peers for Mannitol: 571 products, mean screening score 36.6/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Grapes; Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten; Mineral Nutrients. 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

Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.

Using the Mannitol evidence

Use the 571-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

  • Check the listed products containing Mannitol before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Open product sample
  • Place Mannitol next to “Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Browse ingredient records
  • 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.

Questions readers ask about Mannitol

How should I read safety signals when Mannitol sits in heavily flagged products?

93.5% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Mannitol is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Mannitol scores 4/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Cut Back" 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 Mannitol?

Mannitol ranks in the top decile by product count (#973 of 247,206), appearing in 571 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

What function does Mannitol serve when it appears beside other flagged additives?

Mannitol is recorded as a anticaking agent or free-flow agent, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, formulation aid, lubricant or release agent, non-nutritive sweetener, solvent or vehicle 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 (Mannitol). 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.