Yellow 5
PlainFoodSafe flags Yellow 5 as a synthetic dye. CSPI Chemical Cuisine rates it “Avoid.” It appears in 19,566 indexed US food products. A California (schools) restriction takes effect2027-12-31.
Source-backed answer
Yellow 5 appears in 19,566 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Avoid.” Its FDA SAFFA status is “Approved (certified color).” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 19,566
- catalogued products
- #47
- usage rank of 248,027
- 2,451
- named brands represented
- 80%
- 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.
1/5 from FDA SAFFA + CSPI Chemical Cuisine
Where Yellow 5 sits among catalogued ingredients
- Usage rank
- #47
- of 248,027 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 80%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 21,686 products listing it (mean slot 19.8). Yellow 5 usually falls near the end of the captured list; this position does not measure its amount because source formatting, compound ingredients and labeling exceptions vary.
Derived by this site from the ingredient lists of every catalogued product (Open Food Facts), recomputed on each data refresh. 248,027 ingredients have at least one appearance and are ranked here. Usage and list position describe prevalence, not safety.
How common is Yellow 5 vs other flagged additives?
Number of indexed products containing each of the most common flagged additives - Yellow 5 highlighted.
How to use this page
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 Yellow 5 as the trigger. Open records such as 0016500579793; 1 Wow!, Lollipop Bouquet; 1/2 Marble Grad Cake With Red Borders and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 23.5/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 80% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 19544 of 19559 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 Yellow 5
Across the 19,566 products on this site that list Yellow 5, 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. Blue 1 shows up about 13.6x more often with Yellow 5 than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Yellow 5 products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue 1 | 11,186 | 57.2% | 4.2% |
| Red 40 | 10,841 | 55.4% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 6 | 10,546 | 53.9% | 3.4% |
| Titanium Dioxide | 3,522 | 18% | 2.1% |
| Red 3 | 3,169 | 16.2% | 1.1% |
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, 2026-08-02.
Safety Concerns
Synthetic dye
Safety Profile at a Glance
| Source | Classification | Year |
|---|---|---|
| FDA SAFFA | Approved (certified color) | 2024 |
| CSPI Chemical Cuisine | Avoid | 2024 |
| PlainFoodSafe Score | 1/5 | 2026 |
| Product footprint | 19,566 products | OpenFoodFacts |
FDA SAFFA database, CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings, OpenFoodFacts product index. See methodology.
Products Containing Yellow 5
A sample of 16 of the 19,566 indexed products containing Yellow 5, with each product's overall safety score.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Yellow 5 safe to eat? ▼
Yellow 5 has a PlainFoodSafe ingredient-screening score of 1/5. CSPI rates it "Avoid." FDA SAFFA status: Approved (certified color). These labels are not a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific safety determination.
What products contain Yellow 5? ▼
Yellow 5 is found in 19,566 products in our database, spanning various food categories and brands.
What does Yellow 5 do in food? ▼
The current source record does not specify a technical effect for Yellow 5. Its product footprint is shown here without guessing why manufacturers use it.
Citation notes
Regulatory status from FDA SAFFA; safety ratings from CSPI Chemical Cuisine; product presence from Open Food Facts. See our methodology. Retrieved and formatted by PlainFoodSafe.Every figure on PlainFoodSafe is rendered directly from OpenFoodFacts and FDA data, no number is typed in by an editor. Ingredient figures are computed directly from OpenFoodFacts, FDA SAFFA, and CSPI Chemical Cuisine data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.
