Petrolatum
Petrolatum carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 66 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
Petrolatum appears in 66 catalogued products. CSPI has no rating attached in this snapshot. Its FDA SAFFA status is “Approved.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 66
- catalogued products
- #4,131
- usage rank of 247,206
- 25
- named brands represented
- 39%
- 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.
Petrolatum: top-decile catalog footprint (#4,131 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #4,131
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 47 others that also appear in exactly 66 products, listed in more products than 98.3% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 39%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 66 products listing it (mean slot 8.9). Petrolatum 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.
How to use this page
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 28 of 66 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare Arm & Hammer Ultra Max; Candy Carnival; Clinical 72 HR Invisible Solid to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to Petrolatum itself. The ingredient most often sits in the upper half of the list, and Snacks supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
28 of 66 linked records have some flagged component
All 65 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 0–100 score spread more informative than the average alone: investigate the low end, identify the actual flagged row, and compare it with a similar unflagged formulation before drawing a conclusion.
Next check: pair one flagged product with a similar unflagged product from the same shelf category.
What else is usually in the same product as Petrolatum
Across the 66 products on this site that list Petrolatum, 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. Red 40 shows up about 4.2x more often with Petrolatum than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Petrolatum products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | 15 | 22.7% | 5.4% |
| Titanium Dioxide | 7 | 10.6% | 2.1% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 6 | 9.1% | 1.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 6 | 9.1% | 4.8% |
| Yellow 6 | 6 | 9.1% | 3.4% |
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
LUBRICANT OR RELEASE AGENT, MASTICATORY SUBSTANCE, SOLVENT OR VEHICLE, SURFACE-ACTIVE AGENT
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 Petrolatum
Products Containing Petrolatum
High-volume slice (16 of 66) for products naming Petrolatum:
Petrolatum vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Petrolatum sits among other busy catalog rows (66 products, mean score 83.5/100). Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Almond Protein; Alpha Amylase; Arôme. Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.
Similar product count
Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).
Similar mean product score
Score-axis peers only, mean screening score among ingredients with ≥50 scored products, not a second count list.
Next steps from the Petrolatum page
66 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Petrolatum are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing Petrolatum before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. See listed products
- Place Petrolatum next to “Alpha Amylase” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Open a peer record
- Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. Open methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Petrolatum carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. Petrolatum itself carries and FDA SAFFA status "Approved" where the source record supplies them. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with Petrolatum? ▼
Petrolatum ranks in the top decile by product count (#4,131 of 247,206), appearing in 66 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What does Petrolatum do in food? ▼
Petrolatum is recorded as a lubricant or release agent, masticatory substance, solvent or vehicle, surface-active agent in source technical-effect fields.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Petrolatum). 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.