Fish Sticks
by Gorton's
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0044400156509 · Gorton's · Seafood. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Fish Sticks by Gorton's scores 85/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 26 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 1 ingredient is flagged for caution. The 26-component label is layered, beginning with Minced Alaska Pollock, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour, 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.
- 85/100
- Caution safety score
- 1
- One flagged · of 26 analyzed
- Group 4
- Ultra-processed
- B
- 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
65/100
Grade B-
Ingredient Safety
85/100
FDA/CSPI flagged-ingredient screening
Processing Level
NOVA 4
Ultra-processed foods
Nutrition Grade
B
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.
00156509 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Fish Sticks label screening desk
9 of 26 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: TBHQ). Source sheet 00156509 · 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: Stone Baked Pepperoni Pizza · Nearest score peer is Stone Baked Pepperoni Pizza 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.
The Nutri-Score algorithm returned its second band for this label. That grade typically describes a nutrition panel whose favourable components register clearly in the model without fully offsetting its energy or sodium terms. Because the calculation is a single points balance rather than a set of independent thresholds, a strong fibre or protein figure can lift a panel into this band even where one penalised nutrient sits high. The grade summarises the declared panel alone and carries no information about the additive ratings screened below.
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 24,982 products we've scored in the Frozen foods category, the average safety score is 92.9/100. Fish Sticks scores 7.9 points below that category average (85/100 vs. 92.9/100), 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 Seafood products
Fish Sticks lists 26 ingredients on its label
26 89th percentile a longer ingredient list than 89% of the 4,524 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
- 39 products (1%)
- 2–4
- 1,326 products (29%)
- 4–6
- 1,158 products (26%)
- 6–8
- 327 products (7%)
- 8–10
- 167 products (4%)
- 10–12
- 156 products (3%)
- 12–14
- 185 products (4%)
- 14–16
- 129 products (3%)
- 16–18
- 152 products (3%)
- 18–20
- 124 products (3%)
- 20–22
- 112 products (2%)
- 22–24
- 74 products (2%)
- 24–26
- 77 products (2%)
- 26–28
- 75 products (2%)
- 28–30
- 53 products (1%)
- 30–32
- 56 products (1%)
- 32–34
- 52 products (1%)
- 34–36
- 37 products (1%)
- 36–38
- 25 products (1%)
- 38–40
- 20 products (0%)
- 40 and above
- 180 products (4%)
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 4,524 Seafood 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 85/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (1 flagged of 26 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Minced alaska pollock, enriched bleached wheat flour (flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), vegetable oil (cottonseed, soybean and/or canola), water, yellow corn flour, less than 2% of: sugar, dextrose, salt, whey, baking powder (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate), yeast, onion powder, natural flavor, sodium tripolyphosphate (to retain fish moisture), tbhq (to protect flavor).
Other products containing Minced Alaska Pollock
Minced Alaska Pollock is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 31 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
Categories
More from Gorton's
High-score cross-brand comparables for Fish Sticks
Neighbours outside Gorton's with screening scores in the same high band as Fish Sticks (85/100 here). The 5 same-brand links above stay within Gorton's; these peers cross brands.
Same high-band screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (1 flagged of 26 on 0044400156509).
Long-label peers (21+ ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (26 on 0044400156509).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
TBHQ is the first flagged ingredient selected from Fish Sticks's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 26-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to TBHQ. Open TBHQ
- Compare Fish Sticks'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 0044400156509: 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.