Phosphoric Acid
Phosphoric Acid carries a source-backed screening score of 4/5 and appears in 4,465 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Cut Back.”
Source-backed answer
Phosphoric Acid appears in 4,465 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Cut Back.” Its FDA SAFFA status is “GRAS.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 4,465
- catalogued products
- #233
- usage rank of 247,206
- 816
- named brands represented
- 63%
- 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 Phosphoric Acid - usage rank #233
- Usage rank
- #233
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.9% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 63%
- Averaged label depth puts Phosphoric Acid in the lower half of the list (63% of list length, mean slot 15.3). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
Derived by this site from the ingredient lists of every catalogued product (Open Food Facts), recomputed on each data refresh. 247,206 ingredients have at least one appearance and are ranked here. Usage and list position describe prevalence, not safety.
What this page can and cannot answer
Audit the co-occurring flags first
63.7% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Phosphoric Acid as the trigger. Open records such as 1 Liter Pepsi; 100% While What Bread No Salt Added; 100% Whole Wheat Bagels and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 83.4/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 63% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
63.7% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 4342 of 4443 NOVA-tagged records. That describes the surrounding products, not the substance. For a useful comparison, hold category and processing level constant, then inspect which named component changes alongside the caution flag; otherwise the product mix will confound the ingredient question.
Next check: open the lowest-scoring linked formulation and locate the exact caution-marked component.
What else is usually in the same product as Phosphoric Acid
Across the 4,465 products on this site that list Phosphoric Acid, 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 6.7x more often with Phosphoric Acid than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Phosphoric Acid products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 1,704 | 38.2% | 5.7% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 568 | 12.7% | 1.4% |
| Acesulfame Potassium | 516 | 11.6% | 1.8% |
| Aspartame | 481 | 10.8% | 0.9% |
| Red 40 | 479 | 10.7% | 5.4% |
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
ANTIMICROBIAL AGENT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, FUMIGANT, MALTING OR FERMENTING AID, NON-NUTRITIVE SWEETENER, PH CONTROL AGENT, SEQUESTRANT
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 Phosphoric Acid
Products Containing Phosphoric Acid
High-volume slice (16 of 4,465) for products naming Phosphoric Acid:
Phosphoric Acid vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Top-decile company for Phosphoric Acid: 4,465 listings averaging 83.4/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Tomato Powder; Raisins; Strawberries.
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.
Using the Phosphoric Acid evidence
Use the 4,465-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Check the listed products containing Phosphoric Acid before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Open product sample
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Open a peer record
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Phosphoric Acid — common follow-ups
How should I read safety signals when Phosphoric Acid sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
63.7% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Phosphoric Acid is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Phosphoric Acid scores 4/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Cut Back" with FDA SAFFA status "GRAS". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Phosphoric Acid? ▼
Phosphoric Acid ranks in the top decile by product count (#233 of 247,206), appearing in 4,465 indexed products led by Beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Phosphoric Acid serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Phosphoric Acid is recorded as a antimicrobial agent, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, fumigant, malting or fermenting aid, non-nutritive sweetener, ph control agent, sequestrant in source technical-effect fields. In high co-flag products, that function coexists with other caution-marked components — inspect the full list rather than isolating this role.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Phosphoric Acid). 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.