Cottage cheese
Scores 90/100 on FDA SAFFA + CSPI ingredient analysis , with 2 flagged ingredients identified.
The verdict
Cottage cheese by Garelick Farms scores 90/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 16 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 2 ingredients are flagged for caution. The 16-component label is layered, beginning with Cultured Nonfat Milk, Cream, Whey. 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.
- 90/100
- Safe safety score
- 2
- flagged ingredients of 16 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.
57526014 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Cottage cheese label screening desk
Cottage cheese screens 90/100 with 2 flagged of 16 parsed ingredients. 8 of 16 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Polysorbate 80). Derived index from public OFF + FDA SAFFA + CSPI data — not an official FDA rating; see methodology. Methodology · Read with nearest score peer: Fruit Dip (0 pts).
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.
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.
A mid-length component list was parsed from this label. There are enough separate entries for the screen to match several independently, while each matched entry still carries visible weight in the resulting index. Lists of this size are the most common shape in the catalogue, which makes the composite here easier to place against comparable products than at either extreme.
Cross-brand screening score neighbourhood
How It Compares to Its Category
Among the 23,001 products we've scored in the Dairies category, the average safety score is 97.8/100. Cottage cheese scores 7.8 points below that category average (90/100 vs. 97.8/100), 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 Dairies products
Cottage cheese lists 16 ingredients on its label
16 82nd percentile a longer ingredient list than 82% of the 21,438 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
- 120 products (1%)
- 2–4
- 2,801 products (13%)
- 4–6
- 4,714 products (22%)
- 6–8
- 2,694 products (13%)
- 8–10
- 1,997 products (9%)
- 10–12
- 1,879 products (9%)
- 12–14
- 1,735 products (8%)
- 14–16
- 1,640 products (8%)
- 16–18
- 1,263 products (6%)
- 18–20
- 840 products (4%)
- 20–22
- 486 products (2%)
- 22–24
- 303 products (1%)
- 24–26
- 227 products (1%)
- 26–28
- 152 products (1%)
- 28–30
- 122 products (1%)
- 30–32
- 115 products (1%)
- 32–34
- 80 products (0%)
- 34–36
- 58 products (0%)
- 36–38
- 45 products (0%)
- 38–40
- 33 products (0%)
- 40 and above
- 134 products (1%)
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 21,438 Dairies 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
Cultured nonfat milk, cream, whey, salt, maltodextrin, guar gum, citric acid, carrageenan, mono and diglycerides, locust bean gum, polysorbate 80, potassium sorbate (preservative), natural flavor, vitamin A palmitate, enzymes.
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.
More from Garelick Farms
Cross-brand products with similar screening profiles
Two PlainFoodSafe-derived peer sets for Cottage cheese, both outside the Garelick Farms brand so the neighborhoods are not catalog containment (the More-from block above stays brand-local).
Similar safety score
Nearest cross-brand products by ingredient screening score (90/100 here).
Similar ingredient-count peers
Nearest cross-brand labels by linked ingredient count (16 here).
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.
