Pasta & Cheese Sauce Mix
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0041220703753 · Hill Country Fare. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Pasta & Cheese Sauce Mix by Hill Country Fare scores 50/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 37 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 37-component record, beginning with Enriched Macaroni, Semolina Wheat Flour, Niacin. 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.
- 50/100
- Concern safety score
- 2
- 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
33/100
Grade F
Ingredient Safety
50/100
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.
20703753 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Pasta & Cheese Sauce Mix label screening desk
16 of 37 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Yellow 6). Source sheet 20703753 · 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: Beefy Taco Dinner Mix · Nearest score peer is Beefy Taco Dinner Mix 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.
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
Ingredient-list length vs every product we publish
Pasta & Cheese Sauce Mix lists 37 ingredients on its label
37 92nd percentile a longer ingredient list than 92% of the 359,392 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
- 6,050 products (2%)
- 2–4
- 24,522 products (7%)
- 4–6
- 31,054 products (9%)
- 6–8
- 30,981 products (9%)
- 8–10
- 31,618 products (9%)
- 10–12
- 29,943 products (8%)
- 12–14
- 28,403 products (8%)
- 14–16
- 27,417 products (8%)
- 16–18
- 24,508 products (7%)
- 18–20
- 19,062 products (5%)
- 20–22
- 14,679 products (4%)
- 22–24
- 12,238 products (3%)
- 24–26
- 10,830 products (3%)
- 26–28
- 9,344 products (3%)
- 28–30
- 7,955 products (2%)
- 30–32
- 6,753 products (2%)
- 32–34
- 5,918 products (2%)
- 34–36
- 5,282 products (1%)
- 36–38
- 4,531 products (1%)
- 38–40
- 4,063 products (1%)
- 40 and above
- 24,241 products (7%)
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. No category with enough published products was available for this record, so the comparison runs against the whole published catalogue.
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 37 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
ENRICHED MACARONI (SEMOLINA WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, IRON [FERROUS SULFATE], THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), CORN STARCH, SALT, CHEDDAR CHEESE (MILK CHEESE CULTURE, SALT,ENZYMES), DEHYDRATED TOMATO ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, IRON [FERROUS SULFATE], THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), DEHYDRATED ONION, WHEY, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, MALTODEXTRIN, SUGAR, DEHYDRATED GARLIC, DISODIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE, CITRIC ACID, HYDROLYZED CORN PROTEIN, BLUE CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), COLOR (YELLOW 5, YELLOW 6) SPICE, REDUCED LACTOSE WHEY, EMULSIFIER (MONOGLYCERIDES), AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTE=RACT, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE.
Other products containing Milk Cheese Culture
Milk Cheese Culture is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 13 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
More from Hill Country Fare
Mid-score cross-brand comparables for Pasta & Cheese Sauce Mix
Neighbours outside Hill Country Fare near Pasta & Cheese Sauce Mix's mid-band score (50/100). The 5 same-brand links above stay within Hill Country Fare; these peers cross brands.
Same mid-band screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (2 flagged of 37 on 0041220703753).
Long-label peers (21+ ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (37 on 0041220703753).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Yellow 6 is the first flagged ingredient selected from Pasta & Cheese Sauce Mix'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 Yellow 6. Open Yellow 6
- Compare Pasta & Cheese Sauce Mix'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 0041220703753: 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.