Wheat Germ

Wheat Germ appears in 472 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

Wheat Germ appears in 472 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.

472
catalogued products
#1,075
usage rank of 247,206
179
named brands represented
59%
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 Wheat Germ - usage rank #1,075

Usage rank
#1,075
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 5 others that also appear in exactly 472 products, listed in more products than 99.6% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
59%
Mean relative depth 59% across 472 parsed labels, slot 18.3 on average. Wheat Germ 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 this page can and cannot answer

Use prevalence before concern

Only 16.5% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: Wheat Germ spans 179 named brands and is led by the Plant-based foods and beverages group. Start with 100% Whole Grain Bread; 100% whole wheat; 100% Whole Wheat Bagels when comparing real formulations. Because the flagged component may be something else, neither the low co-occurrence rate nor the 96.1/100 product average proves this ingredient safe.

179 named brands carry this ingredient

The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 386 of 454 classified products, leaving a meaningful remainder elsewhere. This breadth is why the page reports label depth, category, and product examples separately. Those dimensions help locate comparable products; combining them into a stronger safety claim would hide the variation the catalog actually contains.

Next check: compare label position across two brands before treating prevalence as equivalent exposure.

What else is usually in the same product as Wheat Germ

Across the 472 products on this site that list Wheat Germ, 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: +1.7ppCaramel Coloring+1.7ppPolysorbate 60: +5ppPolysorbate 60+5ppRed 40: -2.4ppRed 40-2.4ppCarrageenan: -2ppCarrageenan-2ppSucralose: -0.4ppSucralose-0.4pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Wheat Germ 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
1.7pp
Polysorbate 60
5pp
Red 40
-2.4pp
Carrageenan
-2pp
Sucralose
-0.4pp
Additive Shared products Share of Wheat Germ products Share of all products
Caramel Coloring 35 7.4% 5.7%
Polysorbate 60 30 6.4% 1.4%
Red 40 14 3% 5.4%
Carrageenan 12 2.5% 4.5%
Sucralose 11 2.3% 2.7%

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 Wheat Germ

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 80859095100105 00.511.5 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Wheat Germ
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 Wheat Germ beside “Organic Baby Spinach”

Top-decile company for Wheat Germ: 472 listings averaging 96.1/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Organic Baby Spinach · Durum Semolina · Enzymes And Annatto.

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 Wheat Germ record

Use the 472-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is there no FDA/CSPI verdict on Wheat Germ?

This snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to Wheat Germ, so PlainFoodSafe does not present a source-backed safety verdict. The page reports catalog prevalence (#1,075 of 247,206 ingredients) and label position instead.

Which product shelves show up most often with Wheat Germ?

Wheat Germ ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,075 of 247,206), appearing in 472 indexed products led by Plant-based foods and beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

Why is Wheat Germ so common on ingredient lists?

The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Wheat Germ appears in 472 products (#1,075 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Wheat Germ). 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.