Polysorbate 65
Polysorbate 65 carries a source-backed screening score of 2/5 and appears in 64 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Caution.”
Source-backed answer
Polysorbate 65 appears in 64 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.
- 64
- catalogued products
- #4,211
- usage rank of 247,206
- 17
- named brands represented
- 67%
- 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.
Polysorbate 65 sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#4,211 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #4,211
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 37 others that also appear in exactly 64 products, listed in more products than 98.3% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 67%
- Averaged label depth puts Polysorbate 65 in the lower half of the list (67% of list length, mean slot 17.6). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
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
Audit the co-occurring flags first
73.4% 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 65 as the trigger. Open records such as Breyers Snack Cups, Chocolate; Celebration chocolate and vanilla ice cream cake; Chocolate Crème Pie and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 79.7/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 67% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
73.4% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 64 of 64 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 65
Across the 64 products on this site that list Polysorbate 65, 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 shows up about 14.6x more often with Polysorbate 65 than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Polysorbate 65 products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrageenan | 42 | 65.6% | 4.5% |
| Polysorbate 80 | 33 | 51.6% | 1.3% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 25 | 39.1% | 1.4% |
| Caramel Coloring | 16 | 25% | 5.7% |
| Red 40 | 9 | 14.1% | 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
EMULSIFIER OR EMULSIFIER SALT, STABILIZER OR THICKENER
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 65
Products Containing Polysorbate 65
16 busy labels from the 64 indexed products that list Polysorbate 65:
Polysorbate 65 vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Top-decile company for Polysorbate 65: 64 listings averaging 79.7/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Acidophilus · Ail · Aloe vera.
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 Polysorbate 65 record
64 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Polysorbate 65 are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing Polysorbate 65 before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. See listed products
- Compare Polysorbate 65 with a peer such as “Acidophilus” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Open a peer record
- See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. See source joins
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I read safety signals when Polysorbate 65 sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
73.4% 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 65 is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Polysorbate 65 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 65? ▼
Polysorbate 65 ranks in the top decile by product count (#4,211 of 247,206), appearing in 64 indexed products led by Desserts. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Polysorbate 65 serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Polysorbate 65 is recorded as a emulsifier or emulsifier salt, stabilizer or thickener 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 65). 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.