frito lay
frito lay by Lay's, Smartfood has 3 tracked ingredients, with an overall safety score of 3.7 out of 5, 0.42 points below the 4.12/5 average across all scored products, and 1 of its ingredient carries a low safety rating.
- Safety score 0.42 points below the 4.12/5 average across all scored products
- NOVA processing classification: group 4
How This Score Is Built
This 1-5 scale is an editorially-derived index, not an official government rating -- it synthesizes FDA status, EU regulatory status, US state actions, and published research. For frito lay, 3 of its 3 tracked ingredients carry a scored rating so far, current as of 2026-09-07.
Data draws on Open Food Facts, FDA, and EU regulatory records -- cross-check with the FDA → directly, or read how we score it.
Where frito lay sits nationally
Average ingredient safety score vs. 58,710 other scored products in PlainIngredients
3.7 Top 87% higher than 13% of 58,710 scored products
Average ingredient safety score (1 = highest risk, 5 = safest), bucketed by value
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more scored products. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainIngredients ingredient safety index · 2026-09-07
- Monosodium Glutamate - Safety score: 2/5
Ingredient Safety Breakdown
Processing Level
Ultra-processed products are formulations made mostly or entirely from substances derived from foods and additives. They typically contain ingredients not commonly used in home cooking.
Full Ingredients List
o cheetos donchy cheese flavored snacks: enriched corn meal (corn meal, ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamin monoi tra'e, riboflavin, folic acid), vegetable oil (corn, canola, baked lay's barbecue flavored potato crisps: dried potatoes, corn starch, corn oil, sugar, salt, soy le. hin, onion powder, maltodextrin (made fror. corn), dextrose, brown sugar, 0% whey proteli concentrae, onion powder, cheddar cheese (milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), monosodium glutamate, blue cheese (milk, cheese cultures, sa'., enzymes), citric acid, baked ruffles cheddar & sour cream fla oret potato crisps: dried potatoes, corn s ar h, corn oil, sugar, maltodextrin (made from ccrn), salt, soy ler ithin, dextrose, whey, artificial color (yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, yellow 5, yellow 6), skim milk, natural and artificial fiavors, garlic powder, lactic a id, disodium inosinate, and disodi m guanylate. baked lay's barbecue flavored potato crisps has 65% less fat than regular potato chips. fat coitent of regul
Compare beyond brand
Nationwide peers by additive safety & ingredient depth
Two PlainIngredients-derived comparison paths for frito lay: nearest mean mapped additive safety score and nearest mapped ingredient count among indexable products with at least 3 scored additives, excluding same-brand siblings. Scores describe regulatory and research signals on additives, not dietary advice.
Similar mean additive safety
Nearest products by average mapped safety score. This record: 3.7/5.
Similar mapped ingredient depth
Nearest products by count of scored mapped additives. This record: 3.
Product Details
- Brand
- Lay's, Smartfood
- Barcode
- 0028400308502
- NOVA Group
- 4 — Ultra-processed foods
- Available In
- United States
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Frequently asked questions
Is frito lay above or below average on ingredient safety?
Among the 58,710 PlainIngredients products with a scored ingredient list, frito lay's 3.7/5 average puts it in the lower 87%, 0.42 points below the 4.12/5 average across all scored products.
What does a 3.7/5 ingredient safety score mean?
The 1-5 scale (5 safest) comes from FDA and EU regulatory status per ingredient. frito lay's mapped ingredients average out to 3.7/5, which is the Low Risk tier.
Every figure on PlainIngredients is rendered directly from FDA, EU, EFSA and U.S. state regulatory records, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.