Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose
Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose appears in 291 indexed US food products. No FDA SAFFA status or CSPI rating is attached in this snapshot, so this page reports prevalence rather than a safety verdict.
What the data can answer
Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose appears in 291 catalogued products, but this snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to it. This page therefore cannot answer whether the ingredient is safe from those sources. It can show how often it occurs, where it tends to sit on labels, and which kinds of products contain it.
- 291
- catalogued products
- #1,513
- usage rank of 247,206
- 91
- named brands represented
- 73%
- 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.
Reading this ingredient record
Audit the co-occurring flags first
72.5% 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 Carboxymethylcellulose as the trigger. Open records such as 2 Layer Cake; Air heads blue raspberry gum; Apple Crumb Coffee Cake and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 58.5/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 73% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
72.5% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 291 of 291 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.
Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose: top-decile catalog footprint (#1,513 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #1,513
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 2 others that also appear in exactly 291 products, listed in more products than 99.4% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 73%
- Averaged label depth puts Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose in the lower half of the list (73% of list length, mean slot 29.4). 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 else is usually in the same product as Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose
Across the 291 products on this site that list Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose, 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. Polysorbate 60 shows up about 29.2x more often with Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polysorbate 60 | 119 | 40.9% | 1.4% |
| Blue 1 | 92 | 31.6% | 4.2% |
| Red 40 | 88 | 30.2% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 86 | 29.6% | 4.8% |
| Yellow 6 | 76 | 26.1% | 3.4% |
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.
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 Carboxymethylcellulose
Products Containing Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose
A sample of 16 high-volume listings among the 291 indexed products containing Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose:
Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose vs other top-decile catalog footprints
High-volume peers for Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose: 291 products, mean screening score 58.5/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Calcium Propionate And Potassium Sorbate · Coconut Water Concentrate · Vegetable Juice For Color. 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.
Using the Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose evidence
291 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Open the product sample for Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose 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. Browse ingredient records
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. See source joins
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose — common follow-ups
How should I read safety signals when Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
72.5% 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 Carboxymethylcellulose is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose? ▼
Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,513 of 247,206), appearing in 291 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose appears in 291 products (#1,513 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose). 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.