Potato Crisps, Sour Cream & Onion
by Lay's
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0028400210973 · Lay's · Snacks. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Potato Crisps, Sour Cream & Onion by Lay's scores 25/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 37 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 3 ingredients are flagged for caution. The source parser split this into a very long 37-component record, beginning with Potatoes, Vegetable Oil, Cottonseed. 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.
- 25/100
- Avoid safety score
- 3
- Few flagged · of 37 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
20/100
Grade F
Ingredient Safety
25/100
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.
00210973 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Potato Crisps, Sour Cream & Onion label screening desk
13 of 37 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Blue 1). Source sheet 00210973 · 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: Fried Prok Skins Chicharrones · Nearest score peer is Fried Prok Skins Chicharrones 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.
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.
Cross-brand screening score neighbourhood
How It Compares to Its Category
Among the 88,006 products we've scored in the Snacks category, the average safety score is 86.1/100. Potato Crisps, Sour Cream & Onion scores 61.1 points below that category average (25/100 vs. 86.1/100), 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 Snacks products
Potato Crisps, Sour Cream & Onion lists 37 ingredients on its label
37 88th percentile a longer ingredient list than 88% of the 81,477 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
- 275 products (0%)
- 2–4
- 2,901 products (4%)
- 4–6
- 4,248 products (5%)
- 6–8
- 5,408 products (7%)
- 8–10
- 5,486 products (7%)
- 10–12
- 5,840 products (7%)
- 12–14
- 6,252 products (8%)
- 14–16
- 6,724 products (8%)
- 16–18
- 6,221 products (8%)
- 18–20
- 5,168 products (6%)
- 20–22
- 4,508 products (6%)
- 22–24
- 3,809 products (5%)
- 24–26
- 3,567 products (4%)
- 26–28
- 2,829 products (3%)
- 28–30
- 2,282 products (3%)
- 30–32
- 1,905 products (2%)
- 32–34
- 1,715 products (2%)
- 34–36
- 1,572 products (2%)
- 36–38
- 1,417 products (2%)
- 38–40
- 1,284 products (2%)
- 40 and above
- 8,066 products (10%)
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 81,477 Snacks 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 25/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (3 flagged of 37 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Dried Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (Cottonseed, Sunflower, And/Or Corn Oil), Unmodified Potato Starch, Rice Flour, And Less Than 2% Of The Following: Sugar, Salt, Mono-And Diglycerides, Dextrose, Skim Milk, Soy Lecithin, Onion Powder, Whey, Monosodium Glutamate, Corn Starch, Sour Cream (Cultured Cream, Skim Milk), Lactose, Maltodextrin (Made From Corn), Natural And Artificial Flavor, Malic Acid, Citric Acid, Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Corn Syrup Solids, Buttermilk, Artificial Color (Yellow 5 Lake, Blue 1, Red 40), Disodium Inosinate, And Disodium Guanylate.
Other products containing Unmodified Potato Starch
Unmodified Potato Starch is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 46 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
Categories
More from Lay's
Lower-score cross-brand comparables for Potato Crisps, Sour Cream & Onion
Neighbours outside Lay's in the same lower screening band as Potato Crisps, Sour Cream & Onion (25/100). The 5 same-brand links above stay within Lay's; these peers cross brands.
Nearest screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (3 flagged of 37 on 0028400210973).
Long-label peers (21+ ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (37 on 0028400210973).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Blue 1 is the first flagged ingredient selected from Potato Crisps, Sour Cream & Onion's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 37-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to Blue 1. Open Blue 1
- Compare Potato Crisps, Sour Cream & Onion's 3 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 0028400210973: 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.