Potassium Hydroxide

Potassium Hydroxide carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 392 indexed US food products.

Source-backed answer

Potassium Hydroxide appears in 392 catalogued products. CSPI has no rating attached in this snapshot. 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.

392
catalogued products
#1,219
usage rank of 247,206
88
named brands represented
64%
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 Potassium Hydroxide - usage rank #1,219

Usage rank
#1,219
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 3 others that also appear in exactly 392 products, listed in more products than 99.5% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
64%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 392 products listing it (mean slot 28.2). Potassium Hydroxide usually falls in the lower half of the list; this position does not measure its amount because source formatting, compound ingredients and labeling exceptions vary.

Ranks use Open Food Facts ingredient rows on this site’s refresh cycle. 247,206 ingredients with ≥1 product appearance enter the ranking. Prevalence and list depth are catalog facts, not toxicology.

Reading this ingredient record

Audit the co-occurring flags first

55.9% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Potassium Hydroxide as the trigger. Open records such as 360 Total Care Infant Formula; 4 Cherry Bakewell Tarts; 4 Milk Chocolate Shakes and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 89.2/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 64% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

55.9% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 361 of 382 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 Potassium Hydroxide

Across the 392 products on this site that list Potassium Hydroxide, 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 9.8x more often with Potassium Hydroxide than in the catalogue at large.

Carrageenan: +39.6ppCarrageenan+39.6ppAcesulfame Potassium: +17.3ppAcesulfame Potassium+17.3ppSucralose: +11.1ppSucralose+11.1ppRed 3: +7.6ppRed 3+7.6ppPolysorbate 80: +2.3ppPolysorbate 80+2.3pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Potassium Hydroxide products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

Unit: percentage points above/below baseline. Data current as of September 2026.

Carrageenan
39.6pp
Acesulfame Potassium
17.3pp
Sucralose
11.1pp
Red 3
7.6pp
Polysorbate 80
2.3pp
Additive Shared products Share of Potassium Hydroxide products Share of all products
Carrageenan 173 44.1% 4.5%
Acesulfame Potassium 75 19.1% 1.8%
Sucralose 54 13.8% 2.7%
Red 3 34 8.7% 1.1%
Polysorbate 80 14 3.6% 1.3%

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

FORMULATION AID, FUMIGANT, PH CONTROL AGENT, PROCESSING AID, STABILIZER OR THICKENER, WASHING OR SURFACE REMOVAL 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 Potassium Hydroxide

Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 16 entities by Safety score (X) and Flagged ingredients on label (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. High score, still flaggedLow score, more flaggedHigh score, fewer flaggedLow score, fewer flagged 7580859095100105 00.511.522.5 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Potassium Hydroxide
Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine.

Potassium Hydroxide vs other top-decile catalog footprints

Potassium Hydroxide sits among other busy catalog rows (392 products, mean score 89.2/100). Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Green Chile Peppers; Sesame Seed Oil; Sorbic Acid As A Preservative. Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.

Similar mean product score

Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.

What to do with this Potassium Hydroxide record

392 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Potassium Hydroxide are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.

  • Review the sampled product records that list Potassium Hydroxide to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Browse linked labels
  • Compare Potassium Hydroxide with a peer such as “Green Chile Peppers” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Browse ingredient records
  • Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. Open methodology

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 Potassium Hydroxide sits in heavily flagged products?

55.9% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Potassium Hydroxide is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Potassium Hydroxide scores 3/5 on this site's screening scale 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 Potassium Hydroxide?

Potassium Hydroxide ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,219 of 247,206), appearing in 392 indexed products led by Beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

What function does Potassium Hydroxide serve when it appears beside other flagged additives?

Potassium Hydroxide is recorded as a formulation aid, fumigant, ph control agent, processing aid, stabilizer or thickener, washing or surface removal 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 (Potassium Hydroxide). 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.