Chocolate Cupcakes
by Trader Joe's
Open Food Facts label for barcode 00500241 · Trader Joe's · Chocolate-cupcakes. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Chocolate Cupcakes by Trader Joe's scores 95/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 30 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 1 ingredient is flagged for caution. The 30-component label is layered, beginning with Sugar, Cane Sugar, Cornstarch. 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.
- 95/100
- Safe safety score
- 1
- One flagged · of 30 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.
00500241 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Chocolate Cupcakes label screening desk
11 of 30 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Carrageenan). Source sheet 00500241 · 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: Deli Style Tuna Salad · Nearest score peer is Deli Style Tuna Salad 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.
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
Ingredient-list length vs every product we publish
Chocolate Cupcakes lists 30 ingredients on its label
30 86th percentile a longer ingredient list than 86% 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 95/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (1 flagged of 30 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Powdered sugar (cane sugar, cornstarch), cane sugar, unsalted butter, buttermilk (cultured lowfat _milk_, nonfat _milk_ solids, sodium citrate, salt, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D3), water, cream (cream, carrageenan), expeller pressed canola oil, rice flour, _eggs_, potato starch, cocoa powder, tapioca starch, vanilla extract (water, ethyl alcohol, vanilla bean extractives), salt, sodium bicarbonate, xanthan gum, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), coffee.
Other products containing Cultured Lowfat Milk
Cultured Lowfat Milk is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 242 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
Categories
More from Trader Joe's
High-score cross-brand comparables for Chocolate Cupcakes
Neighbours outside Trader Joe's with screening scores in the same high band as Chocolate Cupcakes (95/100 here). The 5 same-brand links above stay within Trader Joe's; these peers cross brands.
Same high-band screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score (1 flagged of 30 on 00500241).
Long-label peers (21+ ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (30 on 00500241).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Carrageenan is the first flagged ingredient selected from Chocolate Cupcakes's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 30-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to Carrageenan. Open Carrageenan
- Compare Chocolate Cupcakes'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 00500241: 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.