Polysorbate 60
Polysorbate 60 carries a source-backed screening score of 2/5 and appears in 5,786 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Caution.”
Source-backed answer
Polysorbate 60 appears in 5,786 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Caution.” 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.
- 5,786
- catalogued products
- #191
- usage rank of 247,206
- 760
- named brands represented
- 68%
- 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 Polysorbate 60 - usage rank #191
- Usage rank
- #191
- 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
- 68%
- Mean relative depth 68% across 5,787 parsed labels, slot 26.7 on average. Polysorbate 60 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 this page can and cannot answer
Audit the co-occurring flags first
67.1% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Polysorbate 60 as the trigger. Open records such as 1/2 Marble Grad Cake With Red Borders; 1/4 Sheet White Cake With Colored Icing; 100% Whole Wheat Bread and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 65.2/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 68% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
67.1% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 5786 of 5786 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 Polysorbate 60
Across the 5,786 products on this site that list Polysorbate 60, 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. Yellow 5 shows up about 6.5x more often with Polysorbate 60 than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Polysorbate 60 products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow 5 | 1,817 | 31.4% | 4.8% |
| Red 40 | 1,748 | 30.2% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 6 | 1,398 | 24.2% | 3.4% |
| Blue 1 | 1,377 | 23.8% | 4.2% |
| Titanium Dioxide | 1,169 | 20.2% | 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
BOILER WATER ADDITIVE, EMULSIFIER OR EMULSIFIER SALT, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, STABILIZER OR THICKENER, 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 Polysorbate 60
Products Containing Polysorbate 60
16 busy labels from the 5,786 indexed products that list Polysorbate 60:
Polysorbate 60 vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Polysorbate 60 sits among other busy catalog rows (5,786 products, mean score 65.2/100). Comparable product-count neighbours: Monoglycerides · Cocoa Processed With Alkali · Corn Oil. 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.
What to do with this Polysorbate 60 record
5,786 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Polysorbate 60 are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Open the product sample for Polysorbate 60 and read how the term sits on real packages. Browse linked labels
- Place Polysorbate 60 next to “Cocoa Processed With Alkali” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Browse ingredient records
- 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 Polysorbate 60
How should I read safety signals when Polysorbate 60 sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
67.1% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Polysorbate 60 is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Polysorbate 60 scores 2/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Caution" with FDA SAFFA status "Approved". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Polysorbate 60? ▼
Polysorbate 60 ranks in the top decile by product count (#191 of 247,206), appearing in 5,786 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Polysorbate 60 serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Polysorbate 60 is recorded as a boiler water additive, emulsifier or emulsifier salt, flavoring agent or adjuvant, stabilizer or thickener, surface-active agent 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 (Polysorbate 60). 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.