Tartaric acid
Tartaric acid carries a source-backed screening score of 5/5 and appears in 2,374 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Safe.”
Source-backed answer
Tartaric acid appears in 2,374 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Safe.” No FDA SAFFA status is attached. Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 2,374
- catalogued products
- #360
- usage rank of 247,206
- 666
- named brands represented
- 60%
- 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.
High-volume listing for Tartaric acid - usage rank #360
- Usage rank
- #360
- 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
- 60%
- Averaged label depth puts Tartaric acid in the lower half of the list (60% of list length, mean slot 14.7). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
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.
What this page can and cannot answer
Audit the co-occurring flags first
51.9% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Tartaric acid as the trigger. Open records such as 1,000mg Vitamin C Pink Lemonade; 12 mini crabcakes; 365 everyday value, yellow polenta and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 75.7/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 60% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
51.9% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 2213 of 2365 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 Tartaric acid
Across the 2,374 products on this site that list Tartaric acid, 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. Red 40 shows up about 4.6x more often with Tartaric acid than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Tartaric acid products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | 596 | 25.1% | 5.4% |
| Blue 1 | 505 | 21.3% | 4.2% |
| Yellow 5 | 439 | 18.5% | 4.8% |
| Caramel Coloring | 286 | 12% | 5.7% |
| Yellow 6 | 243 | 10.2% | 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.
Function
Preservative
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 Tartaric acid
Products Containing Tartaric acid
High-volume slice (16 of 2,374) for products naming Tartaric acid:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Sesame Oil”)
Tartaric acid sits among other busy catalog rows (2,374 products, mean score 75.7/100). Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Sesame Oil; Oats; Granulated Garlic. 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
Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.
Next steps from the Tartaric acid page
Start from Tartaric acid's 2,374 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.
- Open the product sample for Tartaric acid and read how the term sits on real packages. See listed products
- Place Tartaric acid next to “Oats” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Compare a peer
- Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. Open 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 Tartaric acid sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
51.9% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Tartaric acid is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Tartaric acid scores 5/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Safe". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Tartaric acid? ▼
Tartaric acid ranks in the top decile by product count (#360 of 247,206), appearing in 2,374 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Tartaric acid serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Tartaric acid is recorded as a preservative 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 (Tartaric acid). 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.