Snack cakes
Snack cakes by Little Debbie has 6 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. Its Nutri-Score is E, 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
Snacks / Sweet snacks / Biscuits and cakes / Cakes
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 Snack cakes, 6 of its 6 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 Snack cakes 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
- Sorbitan Monostearate - 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
Sugar, water, corn syrup, enriched bleached flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [vitamin b1], riboflavin [vitamin b2], folic acid), palm and palm kernel oil, palm and soybean oils with tbhq and citric acid to protect flavor, cocoa, dextrose, soybean oil. contains 2% or less of each of the following: soy flour, egg whites, invert sugar, leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate), salt, mono-and diglycerides, whey (milk), modified corn starch, corn starch, sorbic acid (to preserve freshness), soy lecithin, sorbitan monostearate, propylene glycol monostearate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, polysorbate 60, natural and artificial flavors, polysorbate 80, citric acid, caramel color, red 40.
Compare beyond brand
Nationwide peers by additive safety & ingredient depth
Two PlainIngredients-derived comparison paths for Snack cakes: 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: 6.
Product Details
- Brand
- Little Debbie
- Barcode
- 0024300041433
- Nutri-Score
- Grade E
- NOVA Group
- 4 — Ultra-processed foods
- Available In
- United States
Find Products
Frequently asked questions
How does Snack cakes's safety score compare to other products?
Snack cakes scores 3.7 out of 5 for average ingredient safety, in the bottom 87% of the 58,710 products in PlainIngredients with a scored ingredient list, 0.42 points below the 4.12/5 average across all scored products.
What's behind the 3.7/5 rating on Snack cakes?
The 1-5 scale (5 safest) comes from FDA and EU regulatory status per ingredient. Snack cakes'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.