Buffalo chicken mac n' cheese
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0072587003231 · Frozen foods. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Buffalo chicken mac n' cheese scores 95/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 87 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 1 ingredient is flagged for caution. The source parser split this into a very long 87-component record, beginning with Elbows, 100% Durum Wheat Semolina, Niacin. That density can include amounts and label fragments, so verify the physical label before relying on ingredient order or completeness. This is not a recall, allergy, medical, or dietary-safety determination.
- 95/100
- Safe safety score
- 1
- One flagged · of 87 analyzed
- Group 4
- Ultra-processed
- C
- 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
95/100
FDA/CSPI flagged-ingredient screening
Processing Level
NOVA 4
Ultra-processed foods
Nutrition Grade
C
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.
87003231 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Buffalo chicken mac n' cheese label screening desk
18 of 87 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Carrageenan). Source sheet 87003231 · 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
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 settled on its middle grade here, the band the algorithm produces when the penalty and credit sides of its nutrient ledger come out close to balanced. A mid-scale grade is a statement about the panel as a whole rather than about any single nutrient, and products arrive at it by very different routes: a moderate profile across every term, or high marks on some offset by heavy penalties on others. The grade is computed separately from the ingredient screen below and the two are not comparable measures.
The declared list is among the longer ones in this catalogue. A component set this wide means the screen returns many individual ratings, and the composite accumulates a large number of small contributions instead of turning on a handful of entries. At this length the per-component table below is substantially more informative than the single figure, because the figure compresses a great deal of variation into one number.
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. Buffalo chicken mac n' cheese scores 2.1 points above that category average (95/100 vs. 92.9/100), 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 Frozen foods products
Buffalo chicken mac n' cheese lists 87 ingredients on its label
87 98th percentile a longer ingredient list than 98% of the 7,008 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
- 11 products (0%)
- 2–4
- 54 products (1%)
- 4–6
- 54 products (1%)
- 6–8
- 66 products (1%)
- 8–10
- 102 products (1%)
- 10–12
- 112 products (2%)
- 12–14
- 184 products (3%)
- 14–16
- 205 products (3%)
- 16–18
- 245 products (3%)
- 18–20
- 284 products (4%)
- 20–22
- 264 products (4%)
- 22–24
- 298 products (4%)
- 24–26
- 247 products (4%)
- 26–28
- 271 products (4%)
- 28–30
- 284 products (4%)
- 30–32
- 294 products (4%)
- 32–34
- 325 products (5%)
- 34–36
- 319 products (5%)
- 36–38
- 314 products (4%)
- 38–40
- 283 products (4%)
- 40 and above
- 2,792 products (40%)
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 7,008 Frozen foods 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 87 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Elbows [100% durum wheat semolina, niacin, ferrous lactate (iron), thiamine mononitrate (vitamin b1), riboflavin (vitamin b2), folate), water], pasteurized cheddar cheese [(pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), water, sodium phosphate, milkfat, salt, apocarotenal (color), american cheese (cultured pasteurized milk and skim milk, buttermilk, milk fat, salt, sodium phosphate, milk protein concentrate, acetic acid, lactic acid, enymes), light cream, cream cheese (pasteurized milk and cream, cheese culture, salt, carob bean gum), modified corn starch, contains 2% or less of: butter (cream, salt), salt, natural cheddar cheese flavor (maltodextrin, whey solids, natural cheese flavor, salt, yeast extract), onion powder, spices, yeast extract, nisin preparation and annatto], diced chicken breast, buffalo sauce (distilled vinegar, aged cayenne red peppers, salt, water, canola oil, paprika, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate (preservative), natural butter type flavor and garlic powder), ranch dressing (sour dressing (water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, whey powder, sodium caseinate, nonfat dry milk, food starch modified (corn), lactic and citric acids, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, soy lecithin, potassium sorbate (preservative), sodium citrate, dipotassium phosphate, locust bean gum, sodium carbonate, carrageenan, natural and artificial flavors), cultured buttermilk, mayonnaise (soybean oil, egg yolk, vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, salt, spice and calcium disodium edta to protect flavor)), water, sour cream, (cultured pasteurized skim milk, cream, modified food starch, sodium phosphate, locust bean gum, carrageenan), soybean oil, salt, sugar, garlic, onion, xanthan gum, spices and potassium sorbate (preservative), salt, pepper.
Categories
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Carrageenan is the first flagged ingredient selected from Buffalo chicken mac n' cheese's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 87-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to Carrageenan. Open Carrageenan
- Compare Buffalo chicken mac n' cheese'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 0072587003231: 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.