Golden puffs cereal
by Malt O Meal
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0042400293965 · 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
Golden puffs cereal by Malt O Meal scores 95/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 11 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 1 ingredient is flagged for caution. This is a focused 11-component label led by Sugar, Wheat, Corn Syrup; 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.
- 95/100
- Safe safety score
- 1
- One flagged · of 11 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
55/100
Grade C
Ingredient Safety
95/100
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.
00293965 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Golden puffs cereal label screening desk
6 of 11 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Caramel Coloring). Source sheet 00293965 · 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: Cocoa dyno-bites cereal · Nearest score peer is Cocoa dyno-bites cereal 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.
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.
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 78,450 products we've scored in the Plant-based foods and beverages category, the average safety score is 97.7/100. Golden puffs cereal scores 2.7 points below that category average (95/100 vs. 97.7/100), 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 Plant-based foods and beverages products
Golden puffs cereal lists 11 ingredients on its label
11 57th percentile a longer ingredient list than 57% 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 95/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (1 flagged of 11 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Sugar, wheat, corn syrup, salt, honey, caramel color, thiamin mononitrate (vitamin b1), calcium pantothenate (vitamin b5), folic acid.
Categories
More from Malt O Meal
High-score cross-brand comparables for Golden puffs cereal
Neighbours outside Malt O Meal with screening scores in the same high band as Golden puffs cereal (95/100 here). The 5 same-brand links above stay within Malt O Meal; these peers cross brands.
Same high-band screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (1 flagged of 11 on 0042400293965).
Medium-label peers (9–20 ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (11 on 0042400293965).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Caramel Coloring is the first flagged ingredient selected from Golden puffs cereal's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 11-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to Caramel Coloring. Open Caramel Coloring
- Compare Golden puffs cereal'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 0042400293965: 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.