Macaroni & Cheese
Macaroni & Cheese by Hormel has 3 tracked ingredients, with an overall safety score of 4 out of 5, in line with the 4.12/5 average across all scored products. Its Nutri-Score is C.
- Safety score in line with the 4.12/5 average across all scored products
- NOVA processing classification: group 4
Meals
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 Macaroni & Cheese, 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 Macaroni & Cheese sits nationally
Average ingredient safety score vs. 58,710 other scored products in PlainIngredients
4 Top 80% higher than 20% 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
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
Water, enriched macaroni (semolina [wheat], water, egg whites, niacin, ferrous sulfate [iron], thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), pasteurized process swiss and american cheese (cultured milk and skim milk, cream, sodium phosphate, salt, sorbic acid [preservative], enzymes), pasteurized process american cheese (milk, salt, cheese cultures, enzymes, water, sodium phosphate, cream, salt, lactic acid), milk (contains vitamin d3), contains 2% or less of canola oil, modified cornstarch (contains erythorbic acid), parmesan cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes, powdered cellulose to prevent caking, sorbic acid to protect flavor), cream cheese (pasteurized milk and cream, cheese cultures, salt, carob bean gum), potato starch, potassium chloride, yeast extract (contains maltodextrin), soy protein concentrate, onion powder, rice flour, carotene color (carotene, sucrose esters, ascorbyl palmitate, and dl alpha tocopherol), annatto color.
Compare beyond brand
Nationwide peers by additive safety & ingredient depth
Two PlainIngredients-derived comparison paths for Macaroni & Cheese: 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: 4/5.
Similar mapped ingredient depth
Nearest products by count of scored mapped additives. This record: 3.
Product Details
- Brand
- Hormel
- Barcode
- 0003760072118
- Nutri-Score
- Grade C
- NOVA Group
- 4 — Ultra-processed foods
- Available In
- United States
Find Products
Frequently asked questions
How does Macaroni & Cheese's safety score compare to other products?
Macaroni & Cheese scores 4 out of 5 for average ingredient safety, in the bottom 80% of the 58,710 products in PlainIngredients with a scored ingredient list, in line with the 4.12/5 average across all scored products.
How should Macaroni & Cheese's 4/5 score be read?
PlainIngredients scores each ingredient 1 (highest risk) to 5 (safest) from FDA and EU regulatory status, then averages the scores of every ingredient this product lists that we could map. A 4/5 average places Macaroni & Cheese in 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.