Cookies & cream cereal
by Malt O Meal
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0042400258858 · Malt O Meal · Plant-based foods and beverages. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Cookies & cream cereal by Malt O Meal scores 70/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 28 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 2 ingredients are flagged for caution. The 28-component label is layered, beginning with Corn Flour, Sugar, Whole Grain Oat Flour. Start with any flagged rows, then check the nutrition grade and serving size instead of treating one roll-up score as the whole decision. This is not a recall, allergy, medical, or dietary-safety determination.
- 70/100
- Caution safety score
- 2
- Few flagged · of 28 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
43/100
Grade D
Ingredient Safety
70/100
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.
00258858 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Cookies & cream cereal label screening desk
12 of 28 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: BHT). Source sheet 00258858 · 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: Sweetened rice cereal with cocoa & marshmallows · Nearest score peer is Sweetened rice cereal with cocoa & marshmallows 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 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.
This label parsed into a long component list. Where many entries are screened at once, the composite tends to reflect the overall mix of registry ratings returned rather than the rating of any one entry. Longer declarations also carry more sub-listed and compound entries, where a parenthetical group is resolved into its parts, so the parsed count can exceed what a reader counts on the packaging.
Cross-brand screening score neighbourhood
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. Cookies & cream cereal 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
Cookies & cream cereal lists 28 ingredients on its label
28 88th percentile a longer ingredient list than 88% 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
- 3,907 products (6%)
- 2–4
- 7,921 products (12%)
- 4–6
- 8,845 products (14%)
- 6–8
- 7,032 products (11%)
- 8–10
- 6,320 products (10%)
- 10–12
- 4,190 products (7%)
- 12–14
- 3,449 products (5%)
- 14–16
- 3,051 products (5%)
- 16–18
- 2,493 products (4%)
- 18–20
- 2,053 products (3%)
- 20–22
- 1,808 products (3%)
- 22–24
- 1,758 products (3%)
- 24–26
- 1,623 products (3%)
- 26–28
- 1,606 products (3%)
- 28–30
- 1,360 products (2%)
- 30–32
- 1,198 products (2%)
- 32–34
- 1,081 products (2%)
- 34–36
- 901 products (1%)
- 36–38
- 649 products (1%)
- 38–40
- 534 products (1%)
- 40 and above
- 1,655 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
How the 70/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (2 flagged of 28 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Corn flour, sugar, whole grain oat flour, cocoa processed with alkali, corn syrup, canola oil, degermed corn meal, salt, cornstarch, palm oil, natural & artificial flavor, titanium dioxide (color), bht (antioxidant). vitamins & minerals: iron (ferric orthophosphate), niacin (niacinamide), zinc (zinc oxide), vitamin b1 (thiamin mononitrate), calcium pantothenate (a b-vitamin), vitamin b6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), folic acid.
Other products containing Degermed Corn Meal
Degermed Corn Meal is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 80 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
Categories
More from Malt O Meal
Mid-score cross-brand comparables for Cookies & cream cereal
Neighbours outside Malt O Meal near Cookies & cream cereal's mid-band score (70/100). The 5 same-brand links above stay within Malt O Meal; these peers cross brands.
Same mid-band screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (2 flagged of 28 on 0042400258858).
Long-label peers (21+ ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (28 on 0042400258858).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
BHT is the first flagged ingredient selected from Cookies & cream cereal's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 28-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to BHT. Open BHT
- Compare Cookies & cream cereal'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 0042400258858: 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.