Food additives, in the words used on the label
The checker reads a pasted ingredient list and names the 74 substances on it that mark industrial processing — colours, sweeteners, preservatives, emulsifiers, refined oils and the sugars that avoid the word sugar. It runs in your browser and asks for no account.
Naming a substance a marker of processing is a claim about how a food was made, not about what it does to you — those are different claims and this site keeps them apart. Where a regulator has actually acted, the entry carries the document: 25 of the entries have a restriction with its source attached. The methodology below sets out what we will and will not say.
Checker and methodology
How we rate food additives: the rules and the sources
The rules behind the LabelPeek additive list, what a marker of industrial processing does and does not claim, and the documents every regulatory fact came from.
Paste a packaged food ingredient list and see which entries are markers of industrial processing, which are ordinary food, and which could not be read.
Cooking oils
What are seed oils? The full list, and the oils that aren't
Seed oils come from plant seeds: canola, soybean, sunflower and peanut oil do; olive, avocado and palm oil come from fruit. Every common oil, classified.
Additive guides
Is Red 40 bad for you? What the rules actually say
Red 40 is Allura Red AC, or E129. What the FDA listing, the EU labelling statement and California's 2027 school ban actually say, and how to read a label.
Is titanium dioxide bad for you? Two regulators, two answers
Titanium dioxide was removed from the EU permitted list by Regulation (EU) 2022/63 and is still permitted in the US at up to 1% by weight of the food.
Red dye 3: why the FDA revoked it, and what changes in 2027
Red dye 3 (FD&C Red No. 3, erythrosine, E127) loses its US food authorisation on 15 January 2027. What the FDA order says, why, and how to find it on a label.
Yellow 5: what tartrazine is and what the rules say
Yellow 5 is tartrazine, E102 in Europe. US law makes foods name it, even butter and cheese, and drug labels name it too. What the rules and FDA plan say.