Microbial Enzymes

Microbial Enzymes appears in 1,076 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

Microbial Enzymes appears in 1,076 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.

1,076
catalogued products
#636
usage rank of 247,206
182
named brands represented
69%
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.

Microbial Enzymes sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#636 / 247,206)

Usage rank
#636
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.7% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
69%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 1,076 products listing it (mean slot 11.1). Microbial Enzymes 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.

How to use this page

Use prevalence before concern

Only 7.7% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: Microbial Enzymes spans 182 named brands and is led by the Dairies group. Start with 12 Month Aged Gouda Cheese; 365 everyday value, 8 grain bread; 365 everyday value, beef lasagna 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.

182 named brands carry this ingredient

The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 679 of 1028 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 Microbial Enzymes

Across the 1,076 products on this site that list Microbial Enzymes, 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.

Caramel Coloring: -2.9ppCaramel Coloring-2.9ppSodium Nitrite: +0.2ppSodium Nitrite+0.2ppCarrageenan: -2.4ppCarrageenan-2.4ppPolysorbate 60: -0.7ppPolysorbate 60-0.7ppYellow 5: -4.2ppYellow 5-4.2pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Microbial Enzymes products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

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

Caramel Coloring
-2.9pp
Sodium Nitrite
0.2pp
Carrageenan
-2.4pp
Polysorbate 60
-0.7pp
Yellow 5
-4.2pp
Additive Shared products Share of Microbial Enzymes products Share of all products
Caramel Coloring 30 2.8% 5.7%
Sodium Nitrite 28 2.6% 2.4%
Carrageenan 23 2.1% 4.5%
Polysorbate 60 8 0.7% 1.4%
Yellow 5 6 0.6% 4.8%

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 Microbial Enzymes

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 99.9100.0100.0100100.0100.0100.1 00.00.00.1 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Microbial Enzymes
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.

Microbial Enzymes vs other top-decile catalog footprints

Top-decile company for Microbial Enzymes: 1,076 listings averaging 98.8/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Sodium Selenite; Beeswax; Artificial And Natural Flavors.

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.

What to do with this Microbial Enzymes record

Start from Microbial Enzymes's 1,076 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.

  • Check the listed products containing Microbial Enzymes before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. See listed products
  • Compare Microbial Enzymes with a peer such as “Sodium Selenite” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Open a peer record
  • Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. 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 Microbial Enzymes

Why is there no FDA/CSPI verdict on Microbial Enzymes?

This snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to Microbial Enzymes, so PlainFoodSafe does not present a source-backed safety verdict. The page reports catalog prevalence (#636 of 247,206 ingredients) and label position instead.

Which product shelves show up most often with Microbial Enzymes?

Microbial Enzymes ranks in the top decile by product count (#636 of 247,206), appearing in 1,076 indexed products led by Dairies. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

Why is Microbial Enzymes so common on ingredient lists?

The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Microbial Enzymes appears in 1,076 products (#636 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Microbial Enzymes). 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.