Propylene Glycol
Propylene Glycol carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 2,863 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Certain People Should Avoid.”
Source-backed answer
Propylene Glycol appears in 2,863 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Certain People Should Avoid.” 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.
- 2,863
- catalogued products
- #318
- usage rank of 247,206
- 735
- named brands represented
- 63%
- 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.
Propylene Glycol: top-decile catalog footprint (#318 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #318
- 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
- 63%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 2,864 products listing it (mean slot 24.2). Propylene Glycol 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.
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.
Reading this ingredient record
Audit the co-occurring flags first
69.6% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Propylene Glycol as the trigger. Open records such as 10” Chocolate Cake Filled with Chocolate Mousse; 12 Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting; 2 Layer Italian Cream Cake and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 74.3/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 63% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
69.6% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 2742 of 2825 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 Propylene Glycol
Across the 2,863 products on this site that list Propylene Glycol, 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. Caramel Coloring shows up about 4.1x more often with Propylene Glycol than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Propylene Glycol products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 677 | 23.6% | 5.7% |
| Red 40 | 667 | 23.3% | 5.4% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 540 | 18.9% | 1.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 502 | 17.5% | 4.8% |
| Blue 1 | 469 | 16.4% | 4.2% |
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
ANTICAKING AGENT OR FREE-FLOW AGENT, ANTIMICROBIAL AGENT, ANTIOXIDANT, DRYING AGENT, EMULSIFIER OR EMULSIFIER SALT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, FORMULATION AID, HUMECTANT, SOLVENT OR VEHICLE
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 Propylene Glycol
Products Containing Propylene Glycol
A sample of 16 high-volume listings among the 2,863 indexed products containing Propylene Glycol:
Propylene Glycol vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Propylene Glycol sits among other busy catalog rows (2,863 products, mean score 74.3/100). Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Romano Cheese; Whey Protein Isolate; Acetic Acid. 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
Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.
What to do with this Propylene Glycol record
Start from Propylene Glycol's 2,863 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.
- Check the listed products containing Propylene Glycol before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. See listed products
- Compare Propylene Glycol with a peer such as “Romano Cheese” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Open a peer record
- 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I read safety signals when Propylene Glycol sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
69.6% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Propylene Glycol is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Propylene Glycol scores 3/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Certain People Should Avoid" 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 Propylene Glycol? ▼
Propylene Glycol ranks in the top decile by product count (#318 of 247,206), appearing in 2,863 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Propylene Glycol serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Propylene Glycol is recorded as a anticaking agent or free-flow agent, antimicrobial agent, antioxidant, drying agent, emulsifier or emulsifier salt, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, formulation aid, humectant, solvent or vehicle 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 (Propylene Glycol). 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.