Bacon mac & cheese bites
Open Food Facts label for barcode 0078742073378 · Frozen foods. Screening numbers and flags live in the verdict band below. This hero only situates the source record.
The verdict
Bacon mac & cheese bites scores 80/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 63 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 2 ingredients are flagged for caution. The source parser split this into a very long 63-component record, beginning with Cooked Enriched Macaroni, Water, Enriched Macaroni. 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.
- 80/100
- Caution safety score
- 2
- Few flagged · of 63 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
48/100
Grade D
Ingredient Safety
80/100
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.
42073378 · Open Food Facts · July 2026
Bacon mac & cheese bites label screening desk
15 of 63 parsed ingredients carry FDA SAFFA or CSPI coverage (lead: Sodium Nitrite). Source sheet 42073378 · 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
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 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. Bacon mac & cheese bites scores 12.9 points below that category average (80/100 vs. 92.9/100), 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 Frozen foods products
Bacon mac & cheese bites lists 63 ingredients on its label
63 91st percentile a longer ingredient list than 91% 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 80/100 score is built
Screening starts at 100 and subtracts severity-weighted FDA SAFFA / CSPI flags (2 flagged of 63 labeled). The floor is 0 when deductions exceed 100.
Full Ingredient List
Cooked enriched macaroni (water, enriched macaroni [semolina {wheat}, niacin, iron {ferrous sulfate}, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid]), cheddar cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), bacon (pork cured with water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphates, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite, may contain honey), panko bread crumbs (wheat flour, cane sugar, yeast, sea salt), milk with vitamin c & d added, low-moisture part-skim mozzarella (pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), cream, egg (egg, citric acid [preservative], water), tempura flour mix (bleached wheat flour, rice flour, corn starch, leavening [sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate]), water, 2% or less of enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), butter (pasteurized cream, salt), cheese base (cheddar cheese concentrate [cheddar cheese {pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes}, water, sodium phosphate, enzymes], salt, yeast extract, corn oil, sweet cream, butter [cream, natural flavoring], whey, sugar, mustard seed, natural flavor), sea salt, food starch-modified, onion, rice starch, degermed yellow corn meal, carrageenan, tapioca dextrin, red pepper flakes, spices.
Other products containing Tempura Flour Mix
Tempura Flour Mix is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 3 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
Categories
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Follow the flagged-label evidence
Sodium Nitrite is the first flagged ingredient selected from Bacon mac & cheese bites's parsed label. Start with that ingredient’s source context, then compare the rest of this 63-ingredient record.
- Inspect the FDA SAFFA and CSPI context attached to Sodium Nitrite. Open Sodium Nitrite
- Compare Bacon mac & cheese bites's 2 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 0078742073378: 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.