Mozzarella

Mozzarella appears in 161 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

Mozzarella appears in 161 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.

161
catalogued products
#2,253
usage rank of 247,206
67
named brands represented
46%
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.

Mozzarella: top-decile catalog footprint (#2,253 of 247,206)

Usage rank
#2,253
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 7 others that also appear in exactly 161 products, listed in more products than 99.1% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
46%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 161 products listing it (mean slot 17.4). Mozzarella 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.

Computed from parsed product ingredient lists (Open Food Facts). The ranking covers 247,206 ingredients that appear at least once. Neither usage rank nor label depth is a safety clearance.

What this page can and cannot answer

Use prevalence before concern

Only 19.9% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: Mozzarella spans 67 named brands and is led by the Meals group. Start with 4 Cheese Tortellini; 5 Cheese Tortellini; Alfredo, Stuffed Shells when comparing real formulations. Because the flagged component may be something else, neither the low co-occurrence rate nor the 95.3/100 product average proves this ingredient safe.

67 named brands carry this ingredient

The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 133 of 156 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 Mozzarella

Across the 161 products on this site that list Mozzarella, 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. Carrageenan shows up about 3.2x more often with Mozzarella than in the catalogue at large.

Carrageenan: +9.8ppCarrageenan+9.8ppSodium Nitrite: +3.2ppSodium Nitrite+3.2ppBHT: +3.9ppBHT+3.9ppCaramel Coloring: -1.4ppCaramel Coloring-1.4ppTitanium Dioxide: +1ppTitanium Dioxide+1pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Mozzarella products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

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

Carrageenan
9.8pp
Sodium Nitrite
3.2pp
BHT
3.9pp
Caramel Coloring
-1.4pp
Titanium Dioxide
1pp
Additive Shared products Share of Mozzarella products Share of all products
Carrageenan 23 14.3% 4.5%
Sodium Nitrite 9 5.6% 2.4%
BHT 8 5% 1.1%
Caramel Coloring 7 4.3% 5.7%
Titanium Dioxide 5 3.1% 2.1%

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 Mozzarella

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 60708090100110 00.511.522.5 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Mozzarella
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 Mozzarella beside “Added To Make Free Flowing”

Top-decile company for Mozzarella: 161 listings averaging 95.3/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Added To Make Free Flowing · Brewed Organic Black Tea · Hard Cooked Eggs.

Similar mean product score

Score-axis peers only, mean screening score among ingredients with ≥50 scored products, not a second count list.

What to do with this Mozzarella record

Use the 161-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.

Mozzarella — common follow-ups

Why is there no FDA/CSPI verdict on Mozzarella?

This snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to Mozzarella, so PlainFoodSafe does not present a source-backed safety verdict. The page reports catalog prevalence (#2,253 of 247,206 ingredients) and label position instead.

Which product shelves show up most often with Mozzarella?

Mozzarella ranks in the top decile by product count (#2,253 of 247,206), appearing in 161 indexed products led by Meals. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

Why is Mozzarella so common on ingredient lists?

The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Mozzarella appears in 161 products (#2,253 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Mozzarella). 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.