Elf Cereal
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0016000166516 · General Mills · Plant-based foods and beverages. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Elf Cereal by General Mills scores 50/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 26 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 2 ingredients are flagged for caution. The 26-component label is layered, beginning with Whole Grain Corn, Sugar, Corn Meal. 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.
- 50/100
- Concern safety score
- 2
- Few flagged · of 26 analyzed
- Group 4
- Ultra-processed
- 0016000166516
- 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
37/100
Grade F
Ingredient Safety
50/100
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.
00166516 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Elf Cereal label screening desk
11 of 26 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Blue 1). Source sheet 00166516 · 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: Chex mix turtle peg bag · Nearest score peer is Chex mix turtle peg bag at the same screening score.
Screening model notes
How Nutri-Score, NOVA, and list length read this record
This label lands in the third of four positions on the published scale. What separates that position from its neighbours is arithmetic rather than judgement: identical inputs run through the documented weighting always arrive at the same place. Anyone who works the calculation through by hand, using the methodology write-up together with the itemised ratings further down, will reproduce this number exactly — which is the reason for publishing a computed figure instead of an opinion.
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 78,450 products we've scored in the Plant-based foods and beverages category, the average safety score is 97.7/100. Elf Cereal scores 47.7 points below that category average (50/100 vs. 97.7/100), 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 Plant-based foods and beverages products
Elf Cereal lists 26 ingredients on its label
26 86th percentile a longer ingredient list than 86% of the 63,434 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
- 3,907 products (6%)
- 2–4
- 7,921 products (12%)
- 4–6
- 8,845 products (14%)
- 6–8
- 7,032 products (11%)
- 8–10
- 6,320 products (10%)
- 10–12
- 4,190 products (7%)
- 12–14
- 3,449 products (5%)
- 14–16
- 3,051 products (5%)
- 16–18
- 2,493 products (4%)
- 18–20
- 2,053 products (3%)
- 20–22
- 1,808 products (3%)
- 22–24
- 1,758 products (3%)
- 24–26
- 1,623 products (3%)
- 26–28
- 1,606 products (3%)
- 28–30
- 1,360 products (2%)
- 30–32
- 1,198 products (2%)
- 32–34
- 1,081 products (2%)
- 34–36
- 901 products (1%)
- 36–38
- 649 products (1%)
- 38–40
- 534 products (1%)
- 40 and above
- 1,655 products (3%)
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 63,434 Plant-based foods and beverages 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 50/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (2 flagged of 26 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
whole grain corn, sugar, corn meal, brown sugar syrup, maple syrup, modified corn starch, corn syrup, dextrose, canola oil, salt, tricalcium phosphate, yellow 5 & 6, red 40, blue 1, ġelatin, trisodium phosphate, natural and artificial flavor. vitamins and minerals: calcium carbonate, iron and zinc (mineral nutrients), a b vitamin (niacinamide), vitamin b6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin b2 (riboflavin), a b vitamin (folic acid).
Other products containing Iron And Zinc
Iron And Zinc is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 314 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
Categories
More from General Mills
Mid-score cross-brand comparables for Elf Cereal
Neighbours outside General Mills near Elf Cereal's mid-band score (50/100). The 5 same-brand links above stay within General Mills; these peers cross brands.
Same mid-band screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (2 flagged of 26 on 0016000166516).
Long-label peers (21+ ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (26 on 0016000166516).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Blue 1 is the first flagged ingredient selected from Elf Cereal's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 26-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to Blue 1. Open Blue 1
- Compare Elf Cereal's 2 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 0016000166516: 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.