Chic-fil-a mac & cheese
by Chic fil a
Scores 100/100 on FDA SAFFA + CSPI ingredient analysis , with no flagged ingredients identified.
The verdict
Chic-fil-a mac & cheese by Chic fil a scores 100/100 in PlainFoodSafe's ingredient screening. We compared its 84 labeled ingredients with FDA SAFFA regulatory records and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings; 0 ingredients are flagged for caution. The source parser split this into a very long 84-component record, beginning with Cooked Elbow Macaroni, Water, Durum Wheat Semolina. 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.
- 100/100
- Safe safety score
- 0
- flagged ingredients of 84 analyzed
- Group 4
- Ultra-processed
- 2000000157038
- Barcode (UPC/EAN)
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 Chic-fil-a mac & cheese
Chic-fil-a mac & cheese by Chic fil a carries a composite safety score of 100/100, which we classify as "Safe" on our four-tier shelf-label framework.
Of the 84 ingredients parsed from this label, 22 are covered by a regulator or watchdog we screen against (Dimethylpolysiloxane, Calcium Lactate, Vitamin D and 19 others), with 17 carrying an FDA Substances Added to Food (SAFFA) status and 8 a CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating. The remaining 62 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, Chic-fil-a mac & cheese 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
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.
No Nutri-Score grade is present for this record in the OpenFoodFacts snapshot this page is built from. The nutritional dimension is absent rather than assessed and withheld: the grade depends on a complete declared nutrition panel, and community-contributed records vary in how much of that panel they carry. Nothing about the missing grade implies anything either way about the panel itself. The screen below covers additive ratings only and does not depend on the nutrition figures.
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.
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 4 | OpenFoodFacts |
| Nutri-Score | Not available | OpenFoodFacts |
Composite metric derived from FDA SAFFA, CSPI Chemical Cuisine, OpenFoodFacts. See methodology.
Ingredient-list length vs every product we publish
Chic-fil-a mac & cheese lists 84 ingredients on its label
84 100th percentile a longer ingredient list than every other product 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
- 6,017 products (2%)
- 2–4
- 24,515 products (7%)
- 4–6
- 30,975 products (9%)
- 6–8
- 30,947 products (9%)
- 8–10
- 31,570 products (9%)
- 10–12
- 29,866 products (8%)
- 12–14
- 28,397 products (8%)
- 14–16
- 27,399 products (8%)
- 16–18
- 24,531 products (7%)
- 18–20
- 19,104 products (5%)
- 20–22
- 14,716 products (4%)
- 22–24
- 12,256 products (3%)
- 24–26
- 10,853 products (3%)
- 26–28
- 9,356 products (3%)
- 28–30
- 7,948 products (2%)
- 30–32
- 6,771 products (2%)
- 32–34
- 5,945 products (2%)
- 34–36
- 5,283 products (1%)
- 36–38
- 4,549 products (1%)
- 38–40
- 4,084 products (1%)
- 40 and above
- 24,310 products (7%)
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. No category with enough published products was available for this record, so the comparison runs against the whole published catalogue.
Ingredient Safety Analysis
Full Ingredient List
Cooked elbow macaroni (water, durum wheat semolina, egg white, niacin, iron [ferrous sulfate], thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, pasteurized cheese spread (American cheese [milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes], water, whey, sodium phosphate, whey protein concentrate, nonfat dry milk, salt, milkfat), margarine (palm and soybean oil, water, mono and diglycerides, sunflower lecithin, citric acid to protect flavor, salt, natural flavor, beta carotene [color], Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D), Montamore cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes, powdered cellulose to prevent caking), cheddar cheese ([pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes], water, salt, oleoresin paprika [color], apocarotenal [color]), soybean oil, nonfat dry milk, parmesan cheese and asiago cheese ([cultured milk, salt, enzymes], natural flavor, cellulose, salt), natural butter flavor (maltodextrin, modified butter oil, salt, dehydrated butter, shortening powder, guar gum, sodium bicarbonate, annatto and turmeric [for color]), Romano cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes, natural flavor, cellulose, salt), modified corn starch, salt, sugar, emulsifying salt (sodium polyphosphate, sodium phosphate), lactic acid (lactic acid, calcium lactate), egg yolk powder (dried egg yolks, phospholipase), emulsifier (mono - and diglycerides prepared from fully hydrogenated palm oil), enriched bleached wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, malted barley flour, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sodium polyphosphate and sodium phosphate, soy lecithin, natural cheese flavor (maltodextrin, whey solids, natural bleu cheese flavor, salt), xanthan gum, cheese (cheddar cheese [cultured pasteurized milk, pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, annatto {color}], Monterey Jack cheese [cultured pasteurized milk, pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes], potato starch, powdered cellulose [to prevent caking], natamycin [natural mold inhibitor]), soybean oil, soy lecithin, dimethylpolysiloxane, propellant
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.
