Red 40
PlainFoodSafe flags Red 40 as a synthetic dye. CSPI Chemical Cuisine rates it “Avoid.” It appears in 22,216 indexed US food products. A California (schools) restriction takes effect2027-12-31.
Source-backed answer
Red 40 appears in 22,216 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Avoid.” Its FDA SAFFA status is “Approved (certified color).” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 22,216
- catalogued products
- #40
- usage rank of 247,206
- 2,403
- named brands represented
- 78%
- 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.
Red 40 sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#40 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #40
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 78%
- Mean relative depth 78% across 24,464 parsed labels, slot 18.1 on average. Red 40 tends to sit near the end of the captured 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.
How common is Red 40 vs other flagged additives?
Number of indexed products containing each of the most common flagged additives - Red 40 highlighted.
Reading this ingredient record
Audit the co-occurring flags first
100% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Red 40 as the trigger. Open records such as 1 Wow!, Lollipop Bouquet; 1/2 Marble Grad Cake With Red Borders; 10 fl oz juice drink - strawberry kiwi and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 27.8/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 78% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
100% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 22197 of 22202 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 Red 40
Across the 22,216 products on this site that list Red 40, 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. Blue 1 shows up about 13.7x more often with Red 40 than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Red 40 products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue 1 | 12,817 | 57.7% | 4.2% |
| Yellow 5 | 10,841 | 48.8% | 4.8% |
| Yellow 6 | 8,907 | 40.1% | 3.4% |
| Titanium Dioxide | 3,668 | 16.5% | 2.1% |
| Red 3 | 3,260 | 14.7% | 1.1% |
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.
Safety Concerns
Synthetic dye
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 Red 40
Products Containing Red 40
16 busy labels from the 22,216 indexed products that list Red 40:
High-volume peers for Red 40 beside “Yellow 5”
Red 40 sits among other busy catalog rows (22,216 products, mean score 27.8/100). Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Yellow 5; Sunflower Oil; Onion Powder. 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
Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.
Next steps from the Red 40 page
Start from Red 40's 22,216 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.
- Review the sampled product records that list Red 40 to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. See listed products
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Browse ingredient records
- 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.
Questions readers ask about Red 40
How should I read safety signals when Red 40 sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
100% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Red 40 is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Red 40 scores 1/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Avoid" with FDA SAFFA status "Approved (certified color)". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Red 40? ▼
Red 40 ranks in the top decile by product count (#40 of 247,206), appearing in 22,216 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Red 40 so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Red 40 appears in 22,216 products (#40 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Red 40). 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.