Triethyl Citrate

Triethyl Citrate carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 176 indexed US food products.

Source-backed answer

Triethyl Citrate appears in 176 catalogued products. CSPI has no rating attached in this snapshot. Its FDA SAFFA status is “Prior Sanctioned.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.

176
catalogued products
#2,113
usage rank of 247,206
47
named brands represented
73%
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.

Triethyl Citrate sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#2,113 / 247,206)

Usage rank
#2,113
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 7 others that also appear in exactly 176 products, listed in more products than 99.1% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
73%
Averaged label depth puts Triethyl Citrate in the lower half of the list (73% of list length, mean slot 24.1). 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.

How to use this page

Audit the co-occurring flags first

61.4% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Triethyl Citrate as the trigger. Open records such as 3" lemon drop; 4 Almond Croissants; Acne Control Cleanser and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 71.3/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 73% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

61.4% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 176 of 176 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 Triethyl Citrate

Across the 176 products on this site that list Triethyl Citrate, 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 6.5x more often with Triethyl Citrate than in the catalogue at large.

Red 40: +29.8ppRed 40+29.8ppCaramel Coloring: +20.4ppCaramel Coloring+20.4ppBlue 1: +17.4ppBlue 1+17.4ppYellow 6: +11.4ppYellow 6+11.4ppPolysorbate 60: +12.8ppPolysorbate 60+12.8pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Triethyl Citrate products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

Unit: percentage points above/below baseline. Data current as of September 2026.

Red 40
29.8pp
Caramel Coloring
20.4pp
Blue 1
17.4pp
Yellow 6
11.4pp
Polysorbate 60
12.8pp
Additive Shared products Share of Triethyl Citrate products Share of all products
Red 40 62 35.2% 5.4%
Caramel Coloring 46 26.1% 5.7%
Blue 1 38 21.6% 4.2%
Yellow 6 26 14.8% 3.4%
Polysorbate 60 25 14.2% 1.4%

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

FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, FORMULATION AID, SEQUESTRANT, SOLVENT OR VEHICLE

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 Triethyl Citrate

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 050100150 02468 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Triethyl Citrate
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.

High-volume peers for Triethyl Citrate beside “Black Pepper Powder”

Triethyl Citrate sits among other busy catalog rows (176 products, mean score 71.3/100). Nearest count peers include “Black Pepper Powder”, “Dough”, “Or Less Of Leavening”. 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.

Next steps from the Triethyl Citrate page

Start from Triethyl Citrate's 176 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.

  • Check the listed products containing Triethyl Citrate before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Browse linked labels
  • Place Triethyl Citrate next to “Dough” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Open a peer record
  • 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.

Triethyl Citrate — common follow-ups

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

61.4% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Triethyl Citrate is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Triethyl Citrate scores 3/5 on this site's screening scale with FDA SAFFA status "Prior Sanctioned". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.

Which product shelves show up most often with Triethyl Citrate?

Triethyl Citrate ranks in the top decile by product count (#2,113 of 247,206), appearing in 176 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

What function does Triethyl Citrate serve when it appears beside other flagged additives?

Triethyl Citrate is recorded as a flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, formulation aid, sequestrant, solvent or vehicle 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 (Triethyl Citrate). 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.