Propionic Acid
Propionic Acid carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 441 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
Propionic Acid appears in 441 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.
- 441
- catalogued products
- #1,121
- usage rank of 247,206
- 147
- named brands represented
- 62%
- 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.
Propionic Acid: top-decile catalog footprint (#1,121 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #1,121
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 1 other that also appear in exactly 441 products, listed in more products than 99.5% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 62%
- Mean relative depth 62% across 441 parsed labels, slot 18.5 on average. Propionic Acid tends to sit in the lower half of the list. Depth is location on the label, not a measured dose.
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
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 120 of 441 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 100% While What Bread No Salt Added; 100% Whole Wheat Bagels; 6 CT WHITE & CHOCOLATE CUP WITH WHIPPED ICING to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to Propionic Acid itself. The ingredient most often sits in the lower half of the list, and Plant-based foods and beverages supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
120 of 441 linked records have some flagged component
All 440 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 0–100 score spread more informative than the average alone: investigate the low end, identify the actual flagged row, and compare it with a similar unflagged formulation before drawing a conclusion.
Next check: pair one flagged product with a similar unflagged product from the same shelf category.
What else is usually in the same product as Propionic Acid
Across the 441 products on this site that list Propionic 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.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Propionic Acid products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 36 | 8.2% | 5.7% |
| Azodicarbonamide | 32 | 7.3% | 0.2% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 27 | 6.1% | 1.4% |
| Sodium Nitrite | 20 | 4.5% | 2.4% |
| Carrageenan | 18 | 4.1% | 4.5% |
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, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, 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 Propionic Acid
Products Containing Propionic Acid
High-volume slice (16 of 441) for products naming Propionic Acid:
High-volume peers for Propionic Acid beside “Mustard Powder”
High-volume peers for Propionic Acid: 441 products, mean screening score 93.9/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Mustard Powder; Bay Leaf; Degerminated Yellow Corn Meal. Axes below stay distinct so count-neighbors do not duplicate score-neighbors.
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.
Next steps from the Propionic Acid page
441 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Propionic Acid are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Review the sampled product records that list Propionic Acid to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. See listed products
- Place Propionic Acid next to “Bay Leaf” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. 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.
Questions readers ask about Propionic Acid
Does Propionic Acid carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. Propionic Acid itself carries and FDA SAFFA status "GRAS" where the source record supplies them. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with Propionic Acid? ▼
Propionic Acid ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,121 of 247,206), appearing in 441 indexed products led by Plant-based foods and beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What does Propionic Acid do in food? ▼
Propionic Acid is recorded as a antimicrobial agent, flavoring agent or adjuvant, ph control agent in source technical-effect fields.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Propionic 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.