Tallow
Tallow appears in 194 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
Tallow appears in 194 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.
- 194
- catalogued products
- #1,374
- usage rank of 247,206
- 34
- named brands represented
- 33%
- 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
84% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Tallow as the trigger. Open records such as America's choice, muffin mix, corn; Beef Tallow; Birthday Cup Cakes and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 48.5/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 33% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
84% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 189 of 193 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.
Tallow sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#1,374 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #1,374
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 3 others that also appear in exactly 333 products, listed in more products than 99.4% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 33%
- Mean relative depth 33% across 333 parsed labels, slot 13.9 on average. Tallow tends to sit in the upper half of the list. Depth is location on the label, not a measured dose.
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 Tallow
Across the 194 products on this site that list Tallow, 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 51.9x more often with Tallow than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Tallow products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polysorbate 60 | 141 | 72.7% | 1.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 93 | 47.9% | 4.8% |
| Red 40 | 92 | 47.4% | 5.4% |
| Titanium Dioxide | 66 | 34% | 2.1% |
| BHT | 54 | 27.8% | 1.1% |
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.
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 Tallow
Products Containing Tallow
A sample of 16 high-volume listings among the 194 indexed products containing Tallow:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Blue #1 Lake”)
Tallow sits among other busy catalog rows (194 products, mean score 48.5/100). Nearest count peers include “Blue #1 Lake”, “Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast”, “Cocoa Beans”. Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.
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.
What to do with this Tallow record
194 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Tallow are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Review the sampled product records that list Tallow to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Open product sample
- Compare Tallow with a peer such as “Blue #1 Lake” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Compare a peer
- 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I read safety signals when Tallow sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
84% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Tallow is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Tallow? ▼
Tallow ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,374 of 247,206), appearing in 194 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Tallow so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Tallow appears in 194 products (#1,374 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Tallow). 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.