Cubed Ham
Scores 85/100 on FDA SAFFA + CSPI ingredient analysis , with 1 flagged ingredient identified.
The verdict
Cubed Ham by Smithfield Farmland Corp. scores 85/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 9 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 1 ingredient is flagged for caution. This is a focused 9-component label led by Water, Dextrose, Salt; 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.
- 85/100
- Caution safety score
- 1
- flagged ingredient 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.
What the Data Says About Cubed Ham
Cubed Ham by Smithfield Farmland Corp. carries a composite safety score of 85/100, which we classify as "Caution" on our four-tier shelf-label framework.
Of the 9 ingredients parsed from this label, 6 are covered by a regulator or watchdog we screen against (Sodium Nitrate, Potassium Lactate, Sodium Diacetate and 3 others), with 5 carrying an FDA Substances Added to Food (SAFFA) status and 5 a CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating. The remaining 3 ingredients appear in neither registry, so they neither raise nor lower the score. Each additive rated caution-or-worse penalizes the composite. Product data originates from the OpenFoodFacts collaborative catalog; safety annotations come from federal regulators and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. This score is a transparent derived index we compute from that public data, not an official FDA rating or endorsement; see the Methodology page for the exact weighting.
Our scan identified 1 flagged ingredient in this product, components that at least one official source has classified as requiring caution, targeted avoidance, or further evaluation. Flagged ingredients are the items most likely to surface in FDA inspection findings, state-level ingredient bans, or outbreak-related recall notices, so the per-ingredient breakdown below is the most useful lens for anyone screening this product for a specific dietary concern.
On the NOVA processing scale, Cubed Ham is classified as Group 4 (Ultra-processed). NOVA measures industrial processing intensity rather than ingredient-level safety, so it complements the SAFFA and CSPI ratings: a product can be clean on additive flags but heavily processed, or lightly processed but carry individually flagged ingredients. Combining both lenses gives a fuller picture than either alone.
How the three scores on this page were derived
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.
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.
Safety Profile at a Glance
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PlainFoodSafe Score | 85/100 | FDA SAFFA + CSPI composite |
| Flagged ingredients | 1 | CSPI/FDA review |
| NOVA processing group | Group 4 | OpenFoodFacts |
| Nutri-Score | E | OpenFoodFacts |
Composite metric derived from FDA SAFFA, CSPI Chemical Cuisine, OpenFoodFacts. See methodology.
How It Compares to Its Category
Among the 13,350 products we've scored in the Meats and their products category, the average safety score is 92.4/100. Cubed Ham scores 7.4 points below that category average (85/100 vs. 92.4/100), 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 Meats and their products products
Cubed Ham lists 9 ingredients on its label
9 29th percentile a longer ingredient list than 29% of the 11,159 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
- 78 products (1%)
- 2–4
- 431 products (4%)
- 4–6
- 611 products (5%)
- 6–8
- 1,397 products (13%)
- 8–10
- 1,483 products (13%)
- 10–12
- 1,701 products (15%)
- 12–14
- 1,459 products (13%)
- 14–16
- 997 products (9%)
- 16–18
- 735 products (7%)
- 18–20
- 489 products (4%)
- 20–22
- 377 products (3%)
- 22–24
- 278 products (2%)
- 24–26
- 234 products (2%)
- 26–28
- 140 products (1%)
- 28–30
- 145 products (1%)
- 30–32
- 93 products (1%)
- 32–34
- 82 products (1%)
- 34–36
- 67 products (1%)
- 36–38
- 74 products (1%)
- 38–40
- 50 products (0%)
- 40 and above
- 238 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 11,159 Meats and their products 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
Full Ingredient List
Cured with: water, dextrose, salt, modified food starch, potassium lactate, sodium phosphates, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrate.
Categories
Data Sources
Data as of July 2026. Source: OpenFoodFacts, FDA SAFFA, CSPI Chemical Cuisine.
Product data from OpenFoodFacts (ODbL). Ingredient safety ratings from FDA SAFFA and CSPI Chemical Cuisine. See our methodology for details.
This information is for reference only and does not constitute dietary or medical advice.
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Every figure on PlainFoodSafe is rendered directly from OpenFoodFacts and FDA data, no number is typed in by an editor. Product figures are computed directly from OpenFoodFacts, FDA SAFFA, and CSPI Chemical Cuisine data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of July 2026.
