Sorbitan Monostearate
Sorbitan Monostearate carries a source-backed screening score of 5/5 and appears in 2,285 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Safe.”
Source-backed answer
Sorbitan Monostearate appears in 2,285 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Safe.” Its FDA SAFFA status is “Approved.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 2,285
- catalogued products
- #370
- usage rank of 247,206
- 426
- named brands represented
- 68%
- 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.
Sorbitan Monostearate: top-decile catalog footprint (#370 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #370
- 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
- 68%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 2,285 products listing it (mean slot 28.9). Sorbitan Monostearate usually falls in the lower half of the list; this position does not measure its amount because source formatting, compound ingredients and labeling exceptions vary.
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
55.8% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Sorbitan Monostearate as the trigger. Open records such as 1/2 Marble Grad Cake With Red Borders; 1/4 Sheet White Cake With Colored Icing; 10” Chocolate Cake Filled with Chocolate Mousse and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 76.0/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 68% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
55.8% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 2285 of 2285 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 Sorbitan Monostearate
Across the 2,285 products on this site that list Sorbitan Monostearate, 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 43.1x more often with Sorbitan Monostearate than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Sorbitan Monostearate products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polysorbate 60 | 1,377 | 60.3% | 1.4% |
| Red 40 | 493 | 21.6% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 405 | 17.7% | 4.8% |
| Caramel Coloring | 375 | 16.4% | 5.7% |
| Titanium Dioxide | 370 | 16.2% | 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
EMULSIFIER OR EMULSIFIER SALT, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, PROCESSING AID, SOLVENT OR VEHICLE, STABILIZER OR THICKENER, SURFACE-ACTIVE AGENT, 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 Sorbitan Monostearate
Products Containing Sorbitan Monostearate
High-volume slice (16 of 2,285) for products naming Sorbitan Monostearate:
Sorbitan Monostearate vs other top-decile catalog footprints
High-volume peers for Sorbitan Monostearate: 2,285 products, mean screening score 76/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Tapioca Dextrin · Red #40 · Green Beans. 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
Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.
Using the Sorbitan Monostearate evidence
Use the 2,285-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 Sorbitan Monostearate to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Open product sample
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Compare a peer
- 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 Sorbitan Monostearate
How should I read safety signals when Sorbitan Monostearate sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
55.8% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Sorbitan Monostearate is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Sorbitan Monostearate scores 5/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Safe" with FDA SAFFA status "Approved". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Sorbitan Monostearate? ▼
Sorbitan Monostearate ranks in the top decile by product count (#370 of 247,206), appearing in 2,285 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Sorbitan Monostearate serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Sorbitan Monostearate is recorded as a emulsifier or emulsifier salt, flavoring agent or adjuvant, processing aid, solvent or vehicle, stabilizer or thickener, surface-active agent, 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 (Sorbitan Monostearate). 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.