Sodium Ascorbate
Sodium Ascorbate carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 4,835 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
Sodium Ascorbate appears in 4,835 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.
- 4,835
- catalogued products
- #214
- usage rank of 247,206
- 685
- named brands represented
- 60%
- 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.
Sodium Ascorbate sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#214 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #214
- 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
- 60%
- Averaged label depth puts Sodium Ascorbate in the lower half of the list (60% of list length, mean slot 22.5). 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.
What this page can and cannot answer
Audit the co-occurring flags first
67.9% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Sodium Ascorbate as the trigger. Open records such as 1 slice hard salami 2 slices mild cheddar cheese; 1/2 Cheese Pizza & 1/2 Pepperoni Pizza; 100% Bacon Bits and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 78.0/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 60% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
67.9% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 4295 of 4783 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 Sodium Ascorbate
Across the 4,835 products on this site that list Sodium Ascorbate, 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. Sodium Nitrite shows up about 15.2x more often with Sodium Ascorbate than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Sodium Ascorbate products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sodium Nitrite | 1,763 | 36.5% | 2.4% |
| BHT | 1,188 | 24.6% | 1.1% |
| BHA | 967 | 20% | 0.7% |
| Carrageenan | 628 | 13% | 4.5% |
| Caramel Coloring | 571 | 11.8% | 5.7% |
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
ANTIOXIDANT, COLOR OR COLORING ADJUNCT, DOUGH STRENGTHENER, FLOUR TREATING AGENT, LEAVENING AGENT, NUTRIENT SUPPLEMENT, OXIDIZING OR REDUCING AGENT, PROCESSING AID, SURFACE-FINISHING 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 Sodium Ascorbate
Products Containing Sodium Ascorbate
16 busy labels from the 4,835 indexed products that list Sodium Ascorbate:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Disodium Inosinate”)
High-volume peers for Sodium Ascorbate: 4,835 products, mean screening score 78/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Disodium Inosinate · Glucose Syrup · Natural Smoke Flavor. 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
Score-axis peers only, mean screening score among ingredients with ≥50 scored products, not a second count list.
Next steps from the Sodium Ascorbate page
4,835 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Sodium Ascorbate are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Open the product sample for Sodium Ascorbate and read how the term sits on real packages. Open product sample
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Compare a peer
- 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 Sodium Ascorbate sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
67.9% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Sodium Ascorbate is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Sodium Ascorbate 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 Sodium Ascorbate? ▼
Sodium Ascorbate ranks in the top decile by product count (#214 of 247,206), appearing in 4,835 indexed products led by Plant-based foods and beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Sodium Ascorbate serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Sodium Ascorbate is recorded as a antioxidant, color or coloring adjunct, dough strengthener, flour treating agent, leavening agent, nutrient supplement, oxidizing or reducing agent, processing aid, surface-finishing 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 (Sodium Ascorbate). 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.