Root Beer
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0061500015659 · Cott Beverage Inc. · Beverages. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Root Beer by Cott Beverage Inc. scores 65/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 9 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 3 ingredients are flagged for caution. This is a focused 9-component label led by Carbonated Water, High-fructose corn syrup, Caramel Coloring; 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.
- 65/100
- Concern safety score
- 3
- Few flagged · of 9 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
40/100
Grade D
Ingredient Safety
65/100
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.
00015659 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Root Beer label screening desk
6 of 9 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Aspartame). Source sheet 00015659 · 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: Dr. Stripes Soda · Nearest score peer is Dr. Stripes Soda at the same screening score.
Screening model notes
How Nutri-Score, NOVA, and list length read this record
This label lands in the third of four positions on the published scale. What separates that position from its neighbours is arithmetic rather than judgement: identical inputs run through the documented weighting always arrive at the same place. Anyone who works the calculation through by hand, using the methodology write-up together with the itemised ratings further down, will reproduce this number exactly — which is the reason for publishing a computed figure instead of an opinion.
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.
The declared list parsed into a small number of components. On a short list the registry screen covers close to everything the packaging declares, and any single matched component accounts for a correspondingly large share of the composite. Short lists also leave less room for parsing error, since there are fewer separators and qualifiers for the extraction to resolve.
Cross-brand screening score neighbourhood
How It Compares to Its Category
Among the 32,623 products we've scored in the Beverages category, the average safety score is 90.5/100. Root Beer scores 25.5 points below that category average (65/100 vs. 90.5/100), 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 Beverages products
Root Beer lists 9 ingredients on its label
9 48th percentile a longer ingredient list than 48% of the 16,917 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
- 161 products (1%)
- 2–4
- 2,220 products (13%)
- 4–6
- 1,699 products (10%)
- 6–8
- 2,564 products (15%)
- 8–10
- 2,835 products (17%)
- 10–12
- 2,099 products (12%)
- 12–14
- 1,442 products (9%)
- 14–16
- 997 products (6%)
- 16–18
- 595 products (4%)
- 18–20
- 402 products (2%)
- 20–22
- 347 products (2%)
- 22–24
- 277 products (2%)
- 24–26
- 256 products (2%)
- 26–28
- 216 products (1%)
- 28–30
- 131 products (1%)
- 30–32
- 66 products (0%)
- 32–34
- 51 products (0%)
- 34–36
- 47 products (0%)
- 36–38
- 43 products (0%)
- 38–40
- 51 products (0%)
- 40 and above
- 418 products (2%)
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 16,917 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 65/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (3 flagged of 9 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, potassium benzoate (preservative), natural and artificial flavor, citric acid, aspartame, acesulfame potassium.
Categories
More from Cott Beverage Inc.
Mid-score cross-brand comparables for Root Beer
Neighbours outside Cott Beverage Inc. near Root Beer's mid-band score (65/100). The 4 same-brand links above stay within Cott Beverage Inc.; these peers cross brands.
Same mid-band screening score
Nearest cross-brand products by screening score: 33% of this label's ingredients carry a caution flag.
Medium-label peers (9–20 ingredients)
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (9 on 0061500015659).
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Aspartame is the first flagged ingredient selected from Root Beer's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 9-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to Aspartame. Open Aspartame
- Compare Root Beer's 3 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 0061500015659: 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.