Mac & cheese with bacon, sharp cheddar
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0021000070442 · Meals. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Mac & cheese with bacon, sharp cheddar scores 85/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 54 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 1 ingredient is flagged for caution. The source parser split this into a very long 54-component record, beginning with Enriched Macaroni Product, Semolina, Wheat. That density can include amounts and label fragments, so verify the physical label before relying on ingredient order or completeness. This is not a recall, allergy, medical, or dietary-safety determination.
- 85/100
- Caution safety score
- 1
- One flagged · of 54 analyzed
- Group 4
- Ultra-processed
- E
- Nutri-Score nutrition grade
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
50/100
Grade C-
Ingredient Safety
85/100
FDA/CSPI flagged-ingredient screening
Processing Level
NOVA 4
Ultra-processed foods
Nutrition Grade
E
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.
00070442 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Mac & cheese with bacon, sharp cheddar label screening desk
13 of 54 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Sodium Nitrite). Source sheet 00070442 · 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
Screening model notes
How Nutri-Score, NOVA, and list length read this record
The composite for this product falls in the second band of the four-tier framework. That band collects labels whose registry-rated components pull the derived score down measurably without dominating it. Position inside a band is not visible from the band name, and two labels sharing it can differ in how many components were rated and how severely. This is a threshold on an index computed here from public data, not a regulatory classification of any kind; the exact cut-offs are published on the methodology page.
Nutri-Score assigned its lowest band to this label. The algorithm reserves that grade for nutrition panels where the values it penalises sit well above the components it credits. The two systems on this page measure genuinely different things: a product can hold this grade while carrying no additive flagged by the registries screened below, and a product graded well can carry several. Neither reading substitutes for the other, and the per-component table is where the additive picture is set out.
The declared list is among the longer ones in this catalogue. A component set this wide means the screen returns many individual ratings, and the composite accumulates a large number of small contributions instead of turning on a handful of entries. At this length the per-component table below is substantially more informative than the single figure, because the figure compresses a great deal of variation into one number.
How It Compares to Its Category
Among the 15,626 products we've scored in the Meals category, the average safety score is 93.6/100. Mac & cheese with bacon, sharp cheddar scores 8.6 points below that category average (85/100 vs. 93.6/100), 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 Meals products
Mac & cheese with bacon, sharp cheddar lists 54 ingredients on its label
54 88th percentile a longer ingredient list than 88% of the 11,283 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
- 12 products (0%)
- 2–4
- 83 products (1%)
- 4–6
- 127 products (1%)
- 6–8
- 209 products (2%)
- 8–10
- 312 products (3%)
- 10–12
- 315 products (3%)
- 12–14
- 412 products (4%)
- 14–16
- 477 products (4%)
- 16–18
- 542 products (5%)
- 18–20
- 552 products (5%)
- 20–22
- 545 products (5%)
- 22–24
- 550 products (5%)
- 24–26
- 552 products (5%)
- 26–28
- 552 products (5%)
- 28–30
- 574 products (5%)
- 30–32
- 517 products (5%)
- 32–34
- 466 products (4%)
- 34–36
- 451 products (4%)
- 36–38
- 443 products (4%)
- 38–40
- 388 products (3%)
- 40 and above
- 3,204 products (28%)
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 11,283 Meals 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 85/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (1 flagged of 54 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Enriched macaroni product (semolina [wheat], niacin, ferrous sulfate [iron], thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin and folic acid); cheese sauce (cheddar cheese [milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, annatto (color)], whey, canola oil, sodium phosphate, contains less than 2% of salt, whey protein concentrate, milk protein concentrate, sorbic acid as a preservative, lactic acid, sodium alginate, oleoresin paprika [color], annatto extract [color]); bacon bits with added hickory smoke flavor (bacon [cured with water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphates, sodium ascorbate, sodium nitrite], smoke flavor); seasoning blend (modified food starch, maltodextrin, sugar, salt, acetylated monoglycerides, pasteurized part-skim milk, torula yeast, yeast extract, rendered bacon fat, brown sugar, whey, hydrolyzed soy protein, natural flavor, onion powder, fava bean, pea protein, garlic powder, medium chain triglycerides, buttermilk solids, spices [contains celery], citric acid, sodium phosphate, cheese culture, enzymes).
Categories
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Sodium Nitrite is the first flagged ingredient selected from Mac & cheese with bacon, sharp cheddar's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 54-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to Sodium Nitrite. Open Sodium Nitrite
- Compare Mac & cheese with bacon, sharp cheddar's 1 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 0021000070442: 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.