Cheese & garlic restaurant style croutons, cheese & garlic
by Food Club
Scores 70/100 on FDA SAFFA + CSPI ingredient analysis , with 2 flagged ingredients identified.
The verdict
Cheese & garlic restaurant style croutons, cheese & garlic by Food Club scores 70/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 45 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 2 ingredients are flagged for caution. The source parser split this into a very long 45-component record, beginning with Enriched Flour, Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour. 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.
- 70/100
- Caution safety score
- 2
- flagged ingredients of 45 analyzed
- Group 4
- Ultra-processed
- D
- 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.
What the Data Says About Cheese & garlic restaurant style croutons, cheese & garlic
Cheese & garlic restaurant style croutons, cheese & garlic by Food Club carries a composite safety score of 70/100, which we classify as "Caution" on our four-tier shelf-label framework.
Of the 45 ingredients parsed from this label, 19 are covered by a regulator or watchdog we screen against (Azodicarbonamide, Calcium Peroxide, TBHQ and 16 others), with 15 carrying an FDA Substances Added to Food (SAFFA) status and 10 a CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating. The remaining 26 ingredients appear in neither registry, so they neither raise nor lower the score. Each additive rated caution-or-worse penalizes the composite. Product data originates from the OpenFoodFacts collaborative catalog; safety annotations come from federal regulators and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. This score is a transparent derived index we compute from that public data, not an official FDA rating or endorsement; see the Methodology page for the exact weighting.
Our scan identified 2 flagged ingredients in this product, components that at least one official source has classified as requiring caution, targeted avoidance, or further evaluation. Flagged ingredients are the items most likely to surface in FDA inspection findings, state-level ingredient bans, or outbreak-related recall notices, so the per-ingredient breakdown below is the most useful lens for anyone screening this product for a specific dietary concern.
On the NOVA processing scale, Cheese & garlic restaurant style croutons, cheese & garlic is classified as Group 4 (Ultra-processed). NOVA measures industrial processing intensity rather than ingredient-level safety, so it complements the SAFFA and CSPI ratings: a product can be clean on additive flags but heavily processed, or lightly processed but carry individually flagged ingredients. Combining both lenses gives a fuller picture than either alone.
How the three scores on this page were derived
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.
This label falls in the fourth Nutri-Score band. The model arrives there when its penalty terms — energy density, sugars, saturated fat, sodium — carry more weight in the calculation than the fibre, protein and produce content it credits. The band covers a wide span of the points scale, so position within it is not visible from the letter alone. The grade reflects the declared nutrition panel and is unrelated to the additive ratings listed below, which come from different bodies applying different criteria.
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.
Safety Profile at a Glance
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PlainFoodSafe Score | 70/100 | FDA SAFFA + CSPI composite |
| Flagged ingredients | 2 | CSPI/FDA review |
| NOVA processing group | Group 4 | OpenFoodFacts |
| Nutri-Score | D | OpenFoodFacts |
Composite metric derived from FDA SAFFA, CSPI Chemical Cuisine, OpenFoodFacts. See methodology.
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. Cheese & garlic restaurant style croutons, cheese & garlic scores 27.7 points below that category average (70/100 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
Cheese & garlic restaurant style croutons, cheese & garlic lists 45 ingredients on its label
45 99th percentile a longer ingredient list than 99% 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
- 3,888 products (6%)
- 2–4
- 7,927 products (12%)
- 4–6
- 8,831 products (14%)
- 6–8
- 7,029 products (11%)
- 8–10
- 6,313 products (10%)
- 10–12
- 4,193 products (7%)
- 12–14
- 3,461 products (5%)
- 14–16
- 3,042 products (5%)
- 16–18
- 2,501 products (4%)
- 18–20
- 2,052 products (3%)
- 20–22
- 1,820 products (3%)
- 22–24
- 1,760 products (3%)
- 24–26
- 1,622 products (3%)
- 26–28
- 1,604 products (3%)
- 28–30
- 1,363 products (2%)
- 30–32
- 1,200 products (2%)
- 32–34
- 1,076 products (2%)
- 34–36
- 902 products (1%)
- 36–38
- 644 products (1%)
- 38–40
- 540 products (1%)
- 40 and above
- 1,666 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
Full Ingredient List
Enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), canola and/or sunflower oil, cheese powder (cheddar cheese [milk, cultures, salt, enzymes], whey, reduced lactose whey, maltodextrin, salt, disodium phosphate, blue cheese [milk, cultures, salt, enzymes], nonfat milk, citric acid), 2% or less of garlic powder, high fructose corn syrup, dehydrated parsley, salt, calcium propionate (preservative), calcium peroxide, calcium sulfate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, enzymes, sodium stearoyl lactylate, autolyzed yeast extract, extractive of paprika (color), lactic acid, yeast, natural and artificial flavor (milk, monosodium glutamate), paprika (color), jalapeno pepper powder, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, citric acid, tbhq (to preserve freshness).
Other products containing 2% Or Less Of Garlic Powder
2% Or Less Of Garlic Powder is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 13 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
Categories
Data Sources
Data as of July 2026. Source: OpenFoodFacts, FDA SAFFA, CSPI Chemical Cuisine.
Product data from OpenFoodFacts (ODbL). Ingredient safety ratings from FDA SAFFA and CSPI Chemical Cuisine. See our methodology for details.
This information is for reference only and does not constitute dietary or medical advice.
Related
Every figure on PlainFoodSafe is rendered directly from OpenFoodFacts and FDA data, no number is typed in by an editor. Product figures are computed directly from OpenFoodFacts, FDA SAFFA, and CSPI Chemical Cuisine data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of July 2026.
