Metabisulfite
Metabisulfite appears in 23 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
Metabisulfite appears in 23 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.
- 23
- catalogued products
- #8,512
- usage rank of 247,206
- 13
- named brands represented
- 68%
- 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.
High-volume listing for Metabisulfite - usage rank #8,512
- Usage rank
- #8,512
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 274 others that also appear in exactly 23 products.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 68%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 23 products listing it (mean slot 9.7). Metabisulfite usually falls in the lower 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.
What this page can and cannot answer
Use prevalence before concern
Only 13% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: Metabisulfite spans 13 named brands and is led by the Seafood group. Start with 100% Lime Juice; Bayrisch dumplings mix; coconut milk when comparing real formulations. Because the flagged component may be something else, neither the low co-occurrence rate nor the 98.5/100 product average proves this ingredient safe.
13 named brands carry this ingredient
The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 8 of 10 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.
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 Metabisulfite
Products Containing Metabisulfite
High-volume slice (16 of 23) for products naming Metabisulfite:
High-volume peers for Metabisulfite
High-volume peers for Metabisulfite: 23 products, mean screening score 98.5/100. Axes below stay distinct so count-neighbors do not duplicate score-neighbors.
Similar mean product score
Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.
Next steps from the Metabisulfite page
Use the 23-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Open the product sample for Metabisulfite and read how the term sits on real packages. See listed products
- 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. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Questions readers ask about Metabisulfite
Why is there no FDA/CSPI verdict on Metabisulfite? ▼
This snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to Metabisulfite, so PlainFoodSafe does not present a source-backed safety verdict. The page reports catalog prevalence (#8,512 of 247,206 ingredients) and label position instead.
Which product shelves show up most often with Metabisulfite? ▼
Metabisulfite ranks in the top decile by product count (#8,512 of 247,206), appearing in 23 indexed products led by Seafood. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Metabisulfite so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Metabisulfite appears in 23 products (#8,512 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Metabisulfite). 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.