Butter with Parmesan, Garlic & Herb
by Trader Joe’s
Scores 100/100 on FDA SAFFA + CSPI ingredient analysis , with no flagged ingredients identified.
The verdict
Butter with Parmesan, Garlic & Herb by Trader Joe’s scores 100/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 15 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 0 ingredients are flagged for caution. This is a focused 15-component label led by Butter, Parmesan Cheese, Pasteurized Organic Part Skim Milk; 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.
- 100/100
- Safe safety score
- 0
- flagged ingredients of 15 analyzed
- Group 2
- Processed ingredients
- 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 Butter with Parmesan, Garlic & Herb
Butter with Parmesan, Garlic & Herb by Trader Joe’s carries a composite safety score of 100/100, which we classify as "Safe" on our four-tier shelf-label framework.
Of the 15 ingredients parsed from this label, 4 are covered by a regulator or watchdog we screen against (Cornstarch, Garlic, Garlic and 1 other), with 3 carrying an FDA Substances Added to Food (SAFFA) status and 1 a CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating. The remaining 11 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 did not identify any ingredients in this product that FDA SAFFA or CSPI Chemical Cuisine data flags as requiring caution or avoidance at the time of analysis. That is a meaningful clean-label signal, though it does not account for personal allergens, regional recalls, or inspection findings not reflected in federal additive databases. The per-ingredient breakdown below shows the source-level classification for each component.
On the NOVA processing scale, Butter with Parmesan, Garlic & Herb is classified as Group 2 (Processed ingredients). 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
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 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.
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.
Safety Profile at a Glance
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PlainFoodSafe Score | 100/100 | FDA SAFFA + CSPI composite |
| Flagged ingredients | 0 | CSPI/FDA review |
| NOVA processing group | Group 2 | 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 23,001 products we've scored in the Dairies category, the average safety score is 97.8/100. Butter with Parmesan, Garlic & Herb scores 2.2 points above that category average (100/100 vs. 97.8/100), 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 Dairies products
Butter with Parmesan, Garlic & Herb lists 15 ingredients on its label
15 78th percentile a longer ingredient list than 78% 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
Butter, Parmesan cheese (pasteurized part skim milk, salt, cheese culture, microbial enzyme), garlic, lemon juice, shallots, distilled white vinegar, dried garlic, black pepper, salt, cornstarch, parsley. Contains milk.
Other products containing Microbial Enzyme
Microbial Enzyme is the least common ingredient on this label, appearing in 443 products across the catalog. See its safety profile.
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.
Related
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.
