Phosphate
Phosphate appears in 324 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
Phosphate appears in 324 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.
- 324
- catalogued products
- #1,410
- usage rank of 247,206
- 158
- named brands represented
- 56%
- 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.
How to use this page
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 145 of 324 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare Adobo All Purpose Seasoning; Almond Non-Dairy Beverage; Andouille Sausage Cajun Style Smoked Sausage to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to Phosphate itself. The ingredient most often sits in the lower half of the list, and Plant-based foods and beverages supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
145 of 324 linked records have some flagged component
All 318 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.
Phosphate sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#1,410 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #1,410
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 1 other that also appear in exactly 324 products, listed in more products than 99.4% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 56%
- Mean relative depth 56% across 324 parsed labels, slot 19.7 on average. Phosphate tends to sit in the lower half of the list. Depth is location on the label, not a measured dose.
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 else is usually in the same product as Phosphate
Across the 324 products on this site that list Phosphate, 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 shows up about 3.7x more often with Phosphate than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Phosphate products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 69 | 21.3% | 5.7% |
| Carrageenan | 27 | 8.3% | 4.5% |
| Sucralose | 16 | 4.9% | 2.7% |
| Sodium Nitrite | 15 | 4.6% | 2.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 14 | 4.3% | 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 Phosphate
Products Containing Phosphate
High-volume slice (16 of 324) for products naming Phosphate:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Sorghum”)
Top-decile company for Phosphate: 324 listings averaging 92.2/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Sorghum; Anti-caking; Cultured Pasteurized Part-skim Milk.
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 Phosphate record
Start from Phosphate's 324 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.
- Review the sampled product records that list Phosphate to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Open product sample
- Place Phosphate next to “Anti-caking” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Compare a peer
- 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.
Questions readers ask about Phosphate
Does Phosphate carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. This snapshot does not attach a standalone FDA/CSPI verdict to Phosphate. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with Phosphate? ▼
Phosphate ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,410 of 247,206), appearing in 324 indexed products led by Plant-based foods and beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Phosphate so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Phosphate appears in 324 products (#1,410 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Phosphate). 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.