The phrase "the following list" is correct and usable in written English. You use it when you are introducing a list of items, for example: "The following list outlines the items necessary for the project: A, B, C.".
The following list indicates good chocolate and wine matches.
The following list explores 7 of them.
Think of the following list as a hostage to fortune.
Thus, there are many foreign authors in the following list.
The following list summarizes the general parts of an "ideal" flower.
The following list describes the particular levels.
The following list briefly introduces those datasets.
I love the desktop app, it’s always running on my Mac. Ludwig is the best English buddy, it answers my 100 queries per day and stays cool.
Cristina Valenza
Retail Lead Linguist @ Apple Inc.