Nisin

Nisin carries a source-backed screening score of 5/5 and appears in 304 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Safe.”

Source-backed answer

Nisin appears in 304 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Safe.” No FDA SAFFA status is attached. Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.

304
catalogued products
#1,482
usage rank of 247,206
79
named brands represented
87%
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 Nisin - usage rank #1,482

Usage rank
#1,482
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 6 others that also appear in exactly 304 products, listed in more products than 99.4% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
87%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 304 products listing it (mean slot 24.6). Nisin usually falls near the end of the captured 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

Use prevalence before concern

Only 18.8% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: Nisin spans 79 named brands and is led by the Meals group. Start with 24/7 Chocolate Edible Cookie Dough, 24/7 Chocolate; Acme Smoked Fish Of Florida, Fresh Smoked Whitefish Salad; Acme Smoked Fish Of Florida, Smoked Fish Salad when comparing real formulations. Because the flagged component may be something else, neither the low co-occurrence rate nor the 95.7/100 product average proves this ingredient safe.

79 named brands carry this ingredient

The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 254 of 287 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 Nisin

Across the 304 products on this site that list Nisin, 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: +1.1ppCarrageenan+1.1ppCaramel Coloring: -0.4ppCaramel Coloring-0.4ppRed 40: -2.1ppRed 40-2.1ppYellow 5: -1.5ppYellow 5-1.5ppTitanium Dioxide: +0.9ppTitanium Dioxide+0.9pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Nisin 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
1.1pp
Caramel Coloring
-0.4pp
Red 40
-2.1pp
Yellow 5
-1.5pp
Titanium Dioxide
0.9pp
Additive Shared products Share of Nisin products Share of all products
Carrageenan 17 5.6% 4.5%
Caramel Coloring 16 5.3% 5.7%
Red 40 10 3.3% 5.4%
Yellow 5 10 3.3% 4.8%
Titanium Dioxide 9 3% 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.

Function

Preservative

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 Nisin

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 949698100102 00.511.5 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Nisin
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 Nisin beside “Powdered Cellulose Added To Prevent Caking”

Top-decile company for Nisin: 304 listings averaging 95.7/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Powdered Cellulose Added To Prevent Caking · Fenugreek · High Oleic Soybean Oil.

Similar mean product score

Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.

Next steps from the Nisin page

Start from Nisin's 304 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.

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

Nisin — common follow-ups

What do the source ratings say about Nisin?

Nisin has a PlainFoodSafe ingredient-screening score of 5/5. CSPI rates it "Safe." With only 18.8% co-flag overlap in linked products, prevalence and label position often matter as much as the registry labels — and none of them establish product-level safety.

Which product shelves show up most often with Nisin?

Nisin ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,482 of 247,206), appearing in 304 indexed products led by Meals. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

What does Nisin do in food?

Nisin is recorded as a preservative in source technical-effect fields.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Nisin). 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.