Original data research from the PlainFoodSafe editorial team. Every page is rendered server-side from a live SELECT against the portal database; no numbers are hardcoded.
PlainFoodSafe ranks food additives flagged by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) or under FDA regulatory action by how many products in the Open Food Facts database contain them. Rendered server-side from a live SELECT against the flagged_ingredients table.
PlainFoodSafe catalogues enacted US state legislation restricting specific food additives — California AB 418, the California School Food Safety Act, and adjacent state actions. Rendered live from the state_regulations table.
PlainFoodSafe ranks food brands appearing in the Open Food Facts catalog by the aggregate of safety scores across their products, weighted by product count and flagged-additive presence. Rendered live from the brands table.
How much of the indexed US packaged-food catalogue is ultra-processed (NOVA Group 4), and how that overlaps with the flagged additives concentrated in those products. Rendered live from the nova_summary and flagged_ingredients tables.
How many indexed products contain each of the six dyes the FDA is phasing out by 2027, and how far the food companies that make them have committed to removal. Rendered live from the flagged_ingredients and dye_pledges tables.
Every research page is rendered server-side from a live SQL query against the PlainFoodSafe database at request time — there are no hardcoded numbers. Each figure is auditable to the source row, drawn from Open Food Facts product data overlaid with FDA SAFFA status and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings. See our methodology for the full pipeline.