Natural Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0041220250424 · Hill Country Fare · Dairies. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Natural Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese by Hill Country Fare scores 100/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 15 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 0 ingredients are flagged for caution. This is a focused 15-component label led by Cheddar Cheese, Cultured Pasteurized Milk, Salt; compare those leading ingredients with the product's processing and nutrition fields before deciding whether it fits your goal. This is not a recall, allergy, medical, or dietary-safety determination.
- 100/100
- Safe safety score
- 0
- None flagged · of 15 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.
Composite profile score
One verdict from three independent sources
63/100
Grade C+
Ingredient Safety
100/100
FDA/CSPI flagged-ingredient screening
Processing Level
NOVA 4
Ultra-processed foods
Nutrition Grade
D
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.
20250424 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Natural Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese label screening desk
5 of 15 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Natamycin). Source sheet 20250424 · 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: French Style Green Beans · Nearest score peer is French Style Green Beans at the same screening score.
Screening model notes
How Nutri-Score, NOVA, and list length read this record
Within the four-tier shelf-label framework this site publishes, the composite for this product falls in the highest band. That band is defined by a threshold on the derived score alone: it is where labels land once components carrying caution-or-worse registry ratings contribute little or nothing to the deduction. The band is a summary of what the screened registries return for the components that were parsed, so it inherits their coverage gaps — a component absent from both registries neither raises nor lowers the figure. The threshold and the weighting behind it are set out 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.
A mid-length component list was parsed from this label. There are enough separate entries for the screen to match several independently, while each matched entry still carries visible weight in the resulting index. Lists of this size are the most common shape in the catalogue, which makes the composite here easier to place against comparable products than at either extreme.
Cross-brand screening score neighbourhood
How It Compares to Its Category
Among the 23,001 products we've scored in the Dairies category, the average safety score is 97.8/100. Natural Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese scores 2.2 points above that category average (100/100 vs. 97.8/100), so it is roughly typical for shoppers screening within that category specifically, rather than against the product catalog as a whole.
Ingredient-list length vs other Dairies products
Natural Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese lists 15 ingredients on its label
15 78th percentile a longer ingredient list than 78% of the 21,438 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
- 120 products (1%)
- 2–4
- 2,805 products (13%)
- 4–6
- 4,714 products (22%)
- 6–8
- 2,694 products (13%)
- 8–10
- 1,996 products (9%)
- 10–12
- 1,884 products (9%)
- 12–14
- 1,734 products (8%)
- 14–16
- 1,639 products (8%)
- 16–18
- 1,261 products (6%)
- 18–20
- 841 products (4%)
- 20–22
- 481 products (2%)
- 22–24
- 303 products (1%)
- 24–26
- 228 products (1%)
- 26–28
- 151 products (1%)
- 28–30
- 122 products (1%)
- 30–32
- 115 products (1%)
- 32–34
- 81 products (0%)
- 34–36
- 57 products (0%)
- 36–38
- 45 products (0%)
- 38–40
- 33 products (0%)
- 40 and above
- 134 products (1%)
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 21,438 Dairies 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
CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED PASTEURIZED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES [MICROBIAL], ANNATTO [COLOR]), OAXACA CHEESE (CULTURED PASTEURIZED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES [MICROBIAL]), ASADERO CHEESE (CULTURED PASTEURIZED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES [MICROBIAL]), QUESO QUESADILLA CHEESE (CULTURED PASTEURIZED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES [MICROBIAL]), ANTICAKING BLEND (POTATO STARCH, TAPIOCA STARCH, NATAMYCIN [MOLD INHIBITOR])
Other products containing Oaxaca Cheese
Oaxaca Cheese is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 21 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
Categories
More from Hill Country Fare
High-score cross-brand comparables for Natural Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
Neighbours outside Hill Country Fare with screening scores in the same high band as Natural Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese (100/100 here). The 5 same-brand links above stay within Hill Country Fare; these peers cross brands.
Same high-band screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (100/100 here, no caution flags on the parsed list).
Medium-label peers (9–20 ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (15 on 0041220250424).
Read the longer label in layers
Read the longer label in layers
Natural Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese has a longer ingredient list than 78% of its Dairies category comparison set. Use the ingredient table before relying on its single screening score.
- Open Natamycin first, then work through the remaining 15 parsed entries. Inspect ingredients
- Compare this longer label with a cross-brand product of similar list depth. Compare label depth
- Use the methodology to separate a derived screening score from dietary or medical advice. Read the boundary
This page describes published ingredient-list and source coverage. It is not dietary or medical advice.
Barcode 0041220250424: 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.