Trans Fat
PlainFoodSafe flags Trans Fat as a banned substance. CSPI Chemical Cuisine rates it “Avoid.” It appears in 152 indexed US food products. The FDA restriction took effect2018-06-18.
Source-backed answer
Trans Fat appears in 152 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Avoid.” Its FDA SAFFA status is “Banned (FDA, 2018).” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 152
- catalogued products
- #2,346
- usage rank of 247,206
- 85
- named brands represented
- 27%
- 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.
Trans Fat: top-decile catalog footprint (#2,346 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #2,346
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 6 others that also appear in exactly 152 products, listed in more products than 99.1% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 27%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 152 products listing it (mean slot 5.7). Trans Fat usually falls in the upper 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.
How common is Trans Fat vs other flagged additives?
Number of indexed products containing each of the most common flagged additives - Trans Fat highlighted.
What this page can and cannot answer
Audit the co-occurring flags first
100% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Trans Fat as the trigger. Open records such as 4F Gummy Dinosaur; Absopure Purified Water; Apple Banana With Mixed Cereal (Sitter) and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 61.9/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 27% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
100% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 98 of 107 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 Trans Fat
Across the 152 products on this site that list Trans Fat, 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. Sucralose shows up about 5.1x more often with Trans Fat than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Trans Fat products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sucralose | 21 | 13.8% | 2.7% |
| Red 40 | 20 | 13.2% | 5.4% |
| Acesulfame Potassium | 18 | 11.8% | 1.8% |
| Blue 1 | 12 | 7.9% | 4.2% |
| Yellow 5 | 10 | 6.6% | 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.
Function
Other
Safety Concerns
Banned substance
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 Trans Fat
Products Containing Trans Fat
High-volume slice (16 of 152) for products naming Trans Fat:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Natural Acids”)
Top-decile company for Trans Fat: 152 listings averaging 61.9/100. Nearest count peers include “Natural Acids”, “Artichoke”, “Cooked Enriched Pasta”.
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 Trans Fat page
152 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Trans Fat are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Review the sampled product records that list Trans Fat to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Open product sample
- Place Trans Fat next to “Artichoke” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Browse ingredient records
- 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 Trans Fat
How should I read safety signals when Trans Fat sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
100% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Trans Fat is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Trans Fat scores 1/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Avoid" with FDA SAFFA status "Banned (FDA, 2018)". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Trans Fat? ▼
Trans Fat ranks in the top decile by product count (#2,346 of 247,206), appearing in 152 indexed products led by Beverages and beverages preparations. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Trans Fat serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Trans Fat is recorded as a other 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 (Trans Fat). 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.