Sodium Benzoate
Sodium Benzoate carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 11,827 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Certain People Should Avoid.”
Source-backed answer
Sodium Benzoate appears in 11,827 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.
- 11,827
- catalogued products
- #94
- usage rank of 247,206
- 2,374
- named brands represented
- 66%
- 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 Benzoate sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#94 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #94
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 66%
- Mean relative depth 66% across 11,865 parsed labels, slot 16.5 on average. Sodium Benzoate tends to sit in the lower half of the list. Depth is location on the label, not a measured dose.
Derived by this site from the ingredient lists of every catalogued product (Open Food Facts), recomputed on each data refresh. 247,206 ingredients have at least one appearance and are ranked here. Usage and list position describe prevalence, not safety.
What this page can and cannot answer
Audit the co-occurring flags first
62.7% 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 Benzoate as the trigger. Open records such as 1/2 Marble Grad Cake With Red Borders; 10 mg THC Cannabis Infused Soda, Classic Root Beer; 100% grape juice and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 81.0/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 66% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
62.7% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 11134 of 11726 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 Benzoate
Across the 11,827 products on this site that list Sodium Benzoate, 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 4x more often with Sodium Benzoate than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Sodium Benzoate products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 2,672 | 22.6% | 5.7% |
| Red 40 | 1,841 | 15.6% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 1,642 | 13.9% | 4.8% |
| Sucralose | 1,136 | 9.6% | 2.7% |
| Blue 1 | 1,136 | 9.6% | 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
ANTIMICROBIAL AGENT, ANTIOXIDANT, COLOR OR COLORING ADJUNCT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, FUMIGANT, PH CONTROL AGENT, SURFACE-ACTIVE 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 Benzoate
Products Containing Sodium Benzoate
High-volume slice (16 of 11,827) for products naming Sodium Benzoate:
Sodium Benzoate vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Top-decile company for Sodium Benzoate: 11,827 listings averaging 81/100. Nearest count peers include “Vitamin B1”, “Potato Starch”, “Canola”.
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 Benzoate page
11,827 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Sodium Benzoate are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing Sodium Benzoate before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Browse linked labels
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Open a peer record
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Questions readers ask about Sodium Benzoate
How should I read safety signals when Sodium Benzoate sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
62.7% 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 Benzoate is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Sodium Benzoate 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 Sodium Benzoate? ▼
Sodium Benzoate ranks in the top decile by product count (#94 of 247,206), appearing in 11,827 indexed products led by Beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Sodium Benzoate serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Sodium Benzoate is recorded as a antimicrobial agent, antioxidant, color or coloring adjunct, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, fumigant, ph control agent, surface-active 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 Benzoate). 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.