Potassium Sorbate
Potassium Sorbate carries a source-backed screening score of 5/5 and appears in 17,373 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Safe.”
Source-backed answer
Potassium Sorbate appears in 17,373 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Safe.” 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.
- 17,373
- catalogued products
- #55
- usage rank of 247,206
- 2,960
- named brands represented
- 71%
- 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.
Potassium Sorbate: top-decile catalog footprint (#55 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #55
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 71%
- Averaged label depth puts Potassium Sorbate in the lower half of the list (71% of list length, mean slot 19.8). 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
54.9% 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 Sorbate as the trigger. Open records such as 1 Cal Sunflower Oil Cooking Spray; 1% Lowfat Cottage Cheese; 1% lowfat cottage cheese and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 81.2/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 71% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
54.9% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 16575 of 17235 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 Sorbate
Across the 17,373 products on this site that list Potassium Sorbate, 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. Red 40 shows up about 2.7x more often with Potassium Sorbate than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Potassium Sorbate products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | 2,511 | 14.5% | 5.4% |
| Caramel Coloring | 2,366 | 13.6% | 5.7% |
| Carrageenan | 2,211 | 12.7% | 4.5% |
| Yellow 5 | 2,096 | 12.1% | 4.8% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 2,040 | 11.7% | 1.4% |
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, ANTIOXIDANT, COLOR OR COLORING ADJUNCT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, NUTRIENT SUPPLEMENT, PH CONTROL 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 Sorbate
Products Containing Potassium Sorbate
16 busy labels from the 17,373 indexed products that list Potassium Sorbate:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Honey”)
Top-decile company for Potassium Sorbate: 17,373 listings averaging 81.2/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Honey · Butter · Yeast Extract.
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.
Using the Potassium Sorbate evidence
Start from Potassium Sorbate's 17,373 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.
- Review the sampled product records that list Potassium Sorbate to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Open product sample
- Compare Potassium Sorbate with a peer such as “Honey” 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. 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 Sorbate sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
54.9% 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 Sorbate is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Potassium Sorbate scores 5/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Safe" 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 Sorbate? ▼
Potassium Sorbate ranks in the top decile by product count (#55 of 247,206), appearing in 17,373 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Potassium Sorbate serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Potassium Sorbate is recorded as a antimicrobial agent, antioxidant, color or coloring adjunct, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, nutrient supplement, ph control 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 Sorbate). 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.