Tamarind

Tamarind appears in 1,778 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

Tamarind appears in 1,778 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.

1,778
catalogued products
#445
usage rank of 247,206
581
named brands represented
72%
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.

What this page can and cannot answer

Audit the co-occurring flags first

72.2% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Tamarind as the trigger. Open records such as 3% Sodium, Sweet Rub 'A' Butt Seasoning; 365 everyday value, barbecue sauce; 365 everyday value, grilled barbecue sauce, pineapple & moonshine and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 93.7/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 72% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

72.2% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 1643 of 1750 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.

Tamarind sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#445 / 247,206)

Usage rank
#445
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.8% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
72%
Mean relative depth 72% across 1,778 parsed labels, slot 22.6 on average. Tamarind tends to sit in the lower 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 Tamarind

Across the 1,778 products on this site that list Tamarind, 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 12.4x more often with Tamarind than in the catalogue at large.

Caramel Coloring: +65ppCaramel Coloring+65ppSodium Nitrite: +1.4ppSodium Nitrite+1.4ppCarrageenan: -1ppCarrageenan-1ppPolysorbate 60: +0.2ppPolysorbate 60+0.2ppYellow 5: -3.2ppYellow 5-3.2pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Tamarind 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
65pp
Sodium Nitrite
1.4pp
Carrageenan
-1pp
Polysorbate 60
0.2pp
Yellow 5
-3.2pp
Additive Shared products Share of Tamarind products Share of all products
Caramel Coloring 1,257 70.7% 5.7%
Sodium Nitrite 67 3.8% 2.4%
Carrageenan 63 3.5% 4.5%
Polysorbate 60 28 1.6% 1.4%
Yellow 5 28 1.6% 4.8%

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 Tamarind

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 5060708090100110 01234 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Tamarind
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.

Tamarind vs other top-decile catalog footprints

Top-decile company for Tamarind: 1,778 listings averaging 93.7/100. Nearest count peers include “Smoke Flavoring”, “Malt”, “Diced Tomatoes”.

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.

Using the Tamarind evidence

1,778 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Tamarind are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.

  • Review the sampled product records that list Tamarind 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. Open a peer record
  • See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. Open methodology

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

Tamarind — common follow-ups

How should I read safety signals when Tamarind sits in heavily flagged products?

72.2% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Tamarind is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.

Which product shelves show up most often with Tamarind?

Tamarind ranks in the top decile by product count (#445 of 247,206), appearing in 1,778 indexed products led by Condiments. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

Why is Tamarind so common on ingredient lists?

The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Tamarind appears in 1,778 products (#445 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Tamarind). 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.