Sodium Sulfite

Sodium Sulfite carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 534 indexed US food products.

Source-backed answer

Sodium Sulfite appears in 534 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.

534
catalogued products
#1,009
usage rank of 247,206
144
named brands represented
90%
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 Sulfite sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#1,009 / 247,206)

Usage rank
#1,009
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 2 others that also appear in exactly 534 products, listed in more products than 99.6% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
90%
Mean relative depth 90% across 534 parsed labels, slot 20.4 on average. Sodium Sulfite 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.

Reading this ingredient record

Use prevalence before concern

Only 13.5% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: Sodium Sulfite spans 144 named brands and is led by the Snacks group. Start with 100% Lemon Juice; 180 snacks, toasted coconut squares; Al Amir, Premium Fava Beans when comparing real formulations. Because the flagged component may be something else, neither the low co-occurrence rate nor the 96.1/100 product average proves this ingredient safe.

144 named brands carry this ingredient

The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 442 of 526 classified products, leaving a meaningful remainder elsewhere. This breadth is why the page reports label depth, category, and product examples separately. Those dimensions help locate comparable products; combining them into a stronger safety claim would hide the variation the catalog actually contains.

Next check: compare label position across two brands before treating prevalence as equivalent exposure.

What else is usually in the same product as Sodium Sulfite

Across the 534 products on this site that list Sodium Sulfite, 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: -1.4ppCaramel Coloring-1.4ppRed 40: -1.5ppRed 40-1.5ppTBHQ: +2.7ppTBHQ+2.7ppBlue 1: -1.6ppBlue 1-1.6ppTitanium Dioxide: -0.2ppTitanium Dioxide-0.2pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Sodium Sulfite products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

Unit: percentage points above/below baseline. Data current as of September 2026.

Caramel Coloring
-1.4pp
Red 40
-1.5pp
TBHQ
2.7pp
Blue 1
-1.6pp
Titanium Dioxide
-0.2pp
Additive Shared products Share of Sodium Sulfite products Share of all products
Caramel Coloring 23 4.3% 5.7%
Red 40 21 3.9% 5.4%
TBHQ 17 3.2% 0.5%
Blue 1 14 2.6% 4.2%
Titanium Dioxide 10 1.9% 2.1%

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.

Function

ANTIOXIDANT, COLOR OR COLORING ADJUNCT, DOUGH STRENGTHENER, FLOUR TREATING AGENT, FORMULATION AID, OXIDIZING OR REDUCING AGENT, PH CONTROL 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 Sulfite

Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 16 entities by Safety score (X) and Flagged ingredients on label (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. High score, still flaggedLow score, more flaggedHigh score, fewer flaggedLow score, fewer flagged 20406080100120 012345 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Sodium Sulfite
Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine.

Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Herbs”)

High-volume peers for Sodium Sulfite: 534 products, mean screening score 96.1/100. Nearest count peers include “Herbs”, “Propylene Glycol Monoesters”, “Brominated Vegetable Oil”. 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

Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.

Next steps from the Sodium Sulfite page

Use the 534-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

  • Review the sampled product records that list Sodium Sulfite to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Open product sample
  • Place Sodium Sulfite next to “Propylene Glycol Monoesters” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Browse ingredient records
  • Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. See source joins

This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.

Sodium Sulfite — common follow-ups

What do the source ratings say about Sodium Sulfite?

Sodium Sulfite has a PlainFoodSafe ingredient-screening score of 3/5. FDA SAFFA status: GRAS. With only 13.5% co-flag overlap in linked products, prevalence and label position often matter as much as the registry labels — and none of them establish product-level safety.

Which product shelves show up most often with Sodium Sulfite?

Sodium Sulfite ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,009 of 247,206), appearing in 534 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

What does Sodium Sulfite do in food?

Sodium Sulfite is recorded as a antioxidant, color or coloring adjunct, dough strengthener, flour treating agent, formulation aid, oxidizing or reducing agent, ph control agent in source technical-effect fields.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Sodium Sulfite). 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.