Whey Protein
Whey Protein appears in 616 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
Whey Protein appears in 616 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.
- 616
- catalogued products
- #920
- usage rank of 247,206
- 187
- named brands represented
- 44%
- 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.
How to use this page
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 231 of 616 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 100% whey protein blend; 360 Nutrition Vanilla Late; A crunchy coating filled with smoky bacon and a creamy blend of six cheeses bites, bacon mac & cheese to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to Whey Protein itself. The ingredient most often sits in the upper half of the list, and Snacks supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
231 of 616 linked records have some flagged component
All 615 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 0–100 score spread more informative than the average alone: investigate the low end, identify the actual flagged row, and compare it with a similar unflagged formulation before drawing a conclusion.
Next check: pair one flagged product with a similar unflagged product from the same shelf category.
Whey Protein sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#920 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #920
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 1 other that also appear in exactly 616 products, listed in more products than 99.6% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 44%
- Averaged label depth puts Whey Protein in the upper half of the list (44% of list length, mean slot 14.6). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
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 Whey Protein
Across the 616 products on this site that list Whey Protein, 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. Carrageenan shows up about 3.9x more often with Whey Protein than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Whey Protein products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrageenan | 108 | 17.5% | 4.5% |
| Caramel Coloring | 55 | 8.9% | 5.7% |
| Polysorbate 80 | 38 | 6.2% | 1.3% |
| Sucralose | 36 | 5.8% | 2.7% |
| Yellow 5 | 32 | 5.2% | 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 Whey Protein
Products Containing Whey Protein
High-volume slice (16 of 616) for products naming Whey Protein:
Whey Protein vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Whey Protein sits among other busy catalog rows (616 products, mean score 92.5/100). Comparable product-count neighbours: Calcium Stearoyl Lactylate · Macadamia Nuts · Cocoa Liquor. 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 Whey Protein page
Use the 616-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Open the product sample for Whey Protein and read how the term sits on real packages. Browse linked labels
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Compare a peer
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. See source joins
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Whey Protein carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. This snapshot does not attach a standalone FDA/CSPI verdict to Whey Protein. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with Whey Protein? ▼
Whey Protein ranks in the top decile by product count (#920 of 247,206), appearing in 616 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Whey Protein so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Whey Protein appears in 616 products (#920 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Whey Protein). 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.