Kickstart
by Mountain Dew
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0012000183874 · Mountain Dew · Beverages and beverages preparations. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Kickstart by Mountain Dew scores 20/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 25 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 4 ingredients are flagged for caution. The 25-component label is layered, beginning with Carbonated Water, High-fructose corn syrup, White Grape Juice Concentrate. Start with any flagged rows, then check the nutrition grade and serving size instead of treating one roll-up score as the whole decision. This is not a recall, allergy, medical, or dietary-safety determination.
- 20/100
- Avoid safety score
- 4
- Many flagged · of 25 analyzed
- Group 4
- Ultra-processed
- 0012000183874
- Barcode (UPC/EAN)
Computed directly from OpenFoodFacts ingredient data cross-referenced with FDA SAFFA and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings. See our methodology for the scoring formula.
Composite profile score
One verdict from three independent sources
17/100
Grade F
Ingredient Safety
20/100
FDA/CSPI flagged-ingredient screening
Processing Level
NOVA 4
Ultra-processed foods
Nutrition Grade
N/A
Nutri-Score front-of-pack nutrition grade
Weighted 50% ingredient safety / 25% processing level / 25% nutrition grade. A dimension with no data for this product (common: source coverage is partial) is dropped and its weight redistributes across the remaining dimensions, so missing data never silently lowers the score. See the full benchmark table.
00183874 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Kickstart label screening desk
13 of 25 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Acesulfame Potassium). Source sheet 00183874 · Open Food Facts · July 2026. The screening score and flag counts are in the verdict band above. This desk is the provenance stamp, not a second scorecard. Methodology · Read with nearest score peer: Amp game fuel · Nearest score peer is Amp game fuel at the same screening score.
Screening model notes
How Nutri-Score, NOVA, and list length read this record
The composite for this product falls in the lowest of the four bands. That is where labels land when registry-rated components drive the greater part of the deduction from the index. The band name is drawn from the framework's own scale and is distinct from the ratings the registries themselves assign to individual substances, which are shown per component below. A single heavily rated component and several lightly rated ones can produce the same band, so the component table is the more precise reading of the two.
No Nutri-Score grade is present for this record in the OpenFoodFacts snapshot this page is built from. The nutritional dimension is absent rather than assessed and withheld: the grade depends on a complete declared nutrition panel, and community-contributed records vary in how much of that panel they carry. Nothing about the missing grade implies anything either way about the panel itself. The screen below covers additive ratings only and does not depend on the nutrition figures.
This label parsed into a long component list. Where many entries are screened at once, the composite tends to reflect the overall mix of registry ratings returned rather than the rating of any one entry. Longer declarations also carry more sub-listed and compound entries, where a parenthetical group is resolved into its parts, so the parsed count can exceed what a reader counts on the packaging.
Cross-brand screening score neighbourhood
How It Compares to Its Category
Among the 32,623 products we've scored in the Beverages category, the average safety score is 90.5/100. Kickstart scores 70.5 points below that category average (20/100 vs. 90.5/100), so it is a comparatively weaker pick for shoppers screening within that category specifically, rather than against the product catalog as a whole.
Ingredient-list length vs other Beverages and beverages preparations products
Kickstart lists 25 ingredients on its label
25 93rd percentile a longer ingredient list than 93% of the 4,874 products we track
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more products. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Distribution as text
- 0–2
- 103 products (2%)
- 2–4
- 484 products (10%)
- 4–6
- 475 products (10%)
- 6–8
- 550 products (11%)
- 8–10
- 619 products (13%)
- 10–12
- 595 products (12%)
- 12–14
- 493 products (10%)
- 14–16
- 381 products (8%)
- 16–18
- 272 products (6%)
- 18–20
- 193 products (4%)
- 20–22
- 187 products (4%)
- 22–24
- 134 products (3%)
- 24–26
- 95 products (2%)
- 26–28
- 69 products (1%)
- 28–30
- 56 products (1%)
- 30–32
- 38 products (1%)
- 32–34
- 16 products (0%)
- 34–36
- 22 products (0%)
- 36–38
- 5 products (0%)
- 38–40
- 7 products (0%)
- 40 and above
- 80 products (2%)
Source Open Food Facts, product label ingredient lists · July 2026
Ingredient-list length is a descriptive property of the label, not a safety rating. A longer list is not automatically worse and a shorter one is not automatically better; the count is shown so the label can be placed against a comparable population. The comparison here runs against the 4,874 Beverages and beverages preparations products we publish with a parsed label, not against the whole catalogue, because list length varies far more between categories than within one.
Ingredient Safety Analysis
How the 20/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (4 flagged of 25 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, white grape juice concentrate, citric acid, sodium polyphosphates, natural flavor, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), gum arabic, sodium citrate, potassium sorbate, caffeine, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, niacinamide (vitamin B3), glycerol ester of rosin, calcium disodium EDTA, calcium pantothenate (vitamin B5), sucrose acetate isobutyrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), red 40, yellow 5.
Other products containing Sodium Polyphosphates
Sodium Polyphosphates is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 144 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
Categories
More from Mountain Dew
Lower-score cross-brand comparables for Kickstart
Neighbours outside Mountain Dew in the same lower screening band as Kickstart (20/100). The 5 same-brand links above stay within Mountain Dew; these peers cross brands.
Nearest screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (4 flagged of 25 on 0012000183874).
Long-label peers (21+ ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (25 on 0012000183874).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Acesulfame Potassium is the first flagged ingredient selected from Kickstart's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 25-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to Acesulfame Potassium. Open Acesulfame Potassium
- Compare Kickstart's 4 flagged ingredients with a product from the same score neighbourhood. Compare labels
- Check how caution flags contribute to the derived screening score before drawing a dietary conclusion. Read the method
This page describes published ingredient-list and source coverage. It is not dietary or medical advice.
Barcode 0012000183874: product data from Open Food Facts (July 2026). Screening from FDA SAFFA and CSPI Chemical Cuisine where attached. Figures are computed from those sources, not editor-typed. Methodology. Reference only, not dietary or medical advice.