Zinc Oxide

Zinc Oxide carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 4,198 indexed US food products.

Source-backed answer

Zinc Oxide appears in 4,198 catalogued products. CSPI has no rating attached in this snapshot. Its FDA SAFFA status is “GRAS.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.

4,198
catalogued products
#246
usage rank of 247,206
544
named brands represented
68%
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 Zinc Oxide - usage rank #246

Usage rank
#246
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.9% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
68%
Mean relative depth 68% across 4,198 parsed labels, slot 25.8 on average. Zinc Oxide tends to sit in the lower half of the list. Depth is location on the label, not a measured dose.

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 this page can and cannot answer

Audit the co-occurring flags first

52.6% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Zinc Oxide as the trigger. Open records such as 0016500579793; 1/2 Cheese Pizza & 1/2 Pepperoni Pizza; 100 calories protein nutrition shake and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 79.6/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 68% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

52.6% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 3824 of 4158 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 Zinc Oxide

Across the 4,198 products on this site that list Zinc Oxide, 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 shows up about 3.2x more often with Zinc Oxide than in the catalogue at large.

Caramel Coloring: +12.5ppCaramel Coloring+12.5ppRed 40: +11.5ppRed 40+11.5ppBlue 1: +8.9ppBlue 1+8.9ppBHT: +11.5ppBHT+11.5ppYellow 6: +8.7ppYellow 6+8.7pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Zinc Oxide 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
12.5pp
Red 40
11.5pp
Blue 1
8.9pp
BHT
11.5pp
Yellow 6
8.7pp
Additive Shared products Share of Zinc Oxide products Share of all products
Caramel Coloring 766 18.2% 5.7%
Red 40 708 16.9% 5.4%
Blue 1 550 13.1% 4.2%
BHT 531 12.6% 1.1%
Yellow 6 510 12.1% 3.4%

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

COLOR OR COLORING ADJUNCT, NUTRIENT SUPPLEMENT

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 Zinc Oxide

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 406080100120 012345 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Zinc Oxide
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.

Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Jalapeno Peppers”)

Zinc Oxide sits among other busy catalog rows (4,198 products, mean score 79.6/100). Comparable product-count neighbours: Jalapeno Peppers · Annatto Extract · Apple Cider Vinegar. 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 Zinc Oxide page

Use the 4,198-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

  • Open the product sample for Zinc Oxide and read how the term sits on real packages. See listed products
  • Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Compare a peer
  • 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 Zinc Oxide

How should I read safety signals when Zinc Oxide sits in heavily flagged products?

52.6% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Zinc Oxide is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Zinc Oxide scores 3/5 on this site's screening scale with FDA SAFFA status "GRAS". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.

Which product shelves show up most often with Zinc Oxide?

Zinc Oxide ranks in the top decile by product count (#246 of 247,206), appearing in 4,198 indexed products led by Plant-based foods and beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

What function does Zinc Oxide serve when it appears beside other flagged additives?

Zinc Oxide is recorded as a color or coloring adjunct, nutrient supplement 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 (Zinc Oxide). 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.