Yellows 5 & 6
Yellows 5 & 6 appears in 110 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
Yellows 5 & 6 appears in 110 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.
- 110
- catalogued products
- #2,934
- usage rank of 247,206
- 21
- named brands represented
- 76%
- 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
Audit the co-occurring flags first
91.8% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Yellows 5 & 6 as the trigger. Open records such as Angel food confetti cake mix; Betty crocker fruit roll ups variety roll fruit snack; Betty Crocker Reese's Dessert Bar Mix and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 56.0/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 76% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
91.8% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 110 of 110 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.
High-volume listing for Yellows 5 & 6 - usage rank #2,934
- Usage rank
- #2,934
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 15 others that also appear in exactly 110 products, listed in more products than 98.8% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 76%
- Averaged label depth puts Yellows 5 & 6 near the end of the captured list (76% of list length, mean slot 23.0). 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.
What else is usually in the same product as Yellows 5 & 6
Across the 110 products on this site that list Yellows 5 & 6, 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 14.8x more often with Yellows 5 & 6 than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Yellows 5 & 6 products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | 88 | 80% | 5.4% |
| Blue 1 | 78 | 70.9% | 4.2% |
| Carrageenan | 27 | 24.5% | 4.5% |
| Yellow 5 | 11 | 10% | 4.8% |
| Caramel Coloring | 8 | 7.3% | 5.7% |
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 Yellows 5 & 6
Products Containing Yellows 5 & 6
16 busy labels from the 110 indexed products that list Yellows 5 & 6:
High-volume peers for Yellows 5 & 6 beside “Apricot Puree”
High-volume peers for Yellows 5 & 6: 110 products, mean screening score 56/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Apricot Puree; Cream Cheese Powder; Cultured Low Fat Milk. Axes below stay distinct so count-neighbors do not duplicate score-neighbors.
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 Yellows 5 & 6 page
Use the 110-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Review the sampled product records that list Yellows 5 & 6 to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Browse linked labels
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Browse ingredient records
- Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Questions readers ask about Yellows 5 & 6
How should I read safety signals when Yellows 5 & 6 sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
91.8% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Yellows 5 & 6 is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Yellows 5 & 6? ▼
Yellows 5 & 6 ranks in the top decile by product count (#2,934 of 247,206), appearing in 110 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Yellows 5 & 6 so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Yellows 5 & 6 appears in 110 products (#2,934 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Yellows 5 & 6). 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.