Cheese & Garlic Croutons
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0041303002469 · Essential Everyday. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Cheese & Garlic Croutons by Essential Everyday scores 85/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 38 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 38-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.
- 85/100
- Caution safety score
- 1
- One flagged · of 38 analyzed
- Group 4
- Ultra-processed
- C
- 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
60/100
Grade C+
Ingredient Safety
85/100
FDA/CSPI flagged-ingredient screening
Processing Level
NOVA 4
Ultra-processed foods
Nutrition Grade
C
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.
03002469 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Cheese & Garlic Croutons label screening desk
9 of 38 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: TBHQ). Source sheet 03002469 · 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: Bacon Jerky · Nearest score peer is Bacon Jerky 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 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 settled on its middle grade here, the band the algorithm produces when the penalty and credit sides of its nutrient ledger come out close to balanced. A mid-scale grade is a statement about the panel as a whole rather than about any single nutrient, and products arrive at it by very different routes: a moderate profile across every term, or high marks on some offset by heavy penalties on others. The grade is computed separately from the ingredient screen below and the two are not comparable measures.
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
Cheese & Garlic Croutons lists 38 ingredients on its label
38 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 85/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (1 flagged of 38 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
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], YEAST 2% OR LESS OF HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SALT, GARLIC POWDER, DEHYDRATED PARSLEY, CALCIUM PROPONATE (PRESERVATIVE), EXTRACTIVE OF PAPRIKA (COLOR), LATIC ACID, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, PAPRIKA (COLOR), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR (WITH MILK, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE), CITRIC ACID JALAPENO PEPPER POWDER DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, ENZYMES, ASCORBIC ACID, TBHQ (TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS).
Other products containing Calcium Proponate
Calcium Proponate is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 5 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
More from Essential Everyday
High-score cross-brand comparables for Cheese & Garlic Croutons
Neighbours outside Essential Everyday with screening scores in the same high band as Cheese & Garlic Croutons (85/100 here). The 5 same-brand links above stay within Essential Everyday; these peers cross brands.
Same high-band screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (1 flagged of 38 on 0041303002469).
Long-label peers (21+ ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (38 on 0041303002469).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
TBHQ is the first flagged ingredient selected from Cheese & Garlic Croutons's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 38-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to TBHQ. Open TBHQ
- Compare Cheese & Garlic Croutons'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 0041303002469: 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.