EPA Safer Choice
- Also known as
- Safer Choice, Safer Chemical Ingredients List, SCIL
EPA Safer Choice is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program that certifies cleaning and other chemical-based products whose every ingredient meets EPA's safety criteria for human health and the environment. Certified products may carry the Safer Choice label.
What is EPA Safer Choice?
Safer Choice is a voluntary certification program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It evolved from EPA’s earlier Design for the Environment program and took its current name in 2015. Products that meet the Safer Choice Standard, including all-purpose cleaners, laundry and dish detergents, and many industrial and institutional cleaners, can display the Safer Choice label.
The program’s distinguishing feature is that it evaluates every intentionally added ingredient, not just the finished product.
How certification works
To be certified, a product must meet the Safer Choice Standard, which covers:
- Ingredients. Every ingredient must meet criteria for its functional class. Surfactants, for example, are judged on aquatic toxicity and biodegradability.
- Performance. The product must work as well as conventional products in its category.
- Packaging, pH and volatile organic compounds, with limits and requirements for each.
- Ingredient disclosure on the label or online.
Ingredient reviews are carried out by approved third-party profilers, and certified products are subject to audits.
The Safer Chemical Ingredients List
EPA publishes the Safer Chemical Ingredients List, a list of chemicals that have been reviewed and found to meet Safer Choice criteria for their function. Formulators use it to choose ingredients for products they plan to certify. Ingredients that have been reviewed are also listed by the independent CleanGredients database.
Direct release products
Products used in ways that bypass wastewater treatment, such as marine cleaners and outdoor-use products, are held to stricter criteria for aquatic toxicity and biodegradation; see direct release.
Safer Choice at Locus
Locus reports that EPA has approved its Amphi biosurfactant for use in Safer Choice products, and lists Safer Choice among its ingredient credentials for cleaning formulators.
Frequently asked questions
It means EPA has reviewed every intentionally added ingredient in the product against its safety criteria, and the product also meets requirements for performance, packaging and other factors.
No. Safer Choice evaluates ingredient safety for people and the environment. USDA BioPreferred certifies the share of a product’s carbon that comes from biological sources. A product can hold either certification, both or neither.
Sources
- Safer Choice Standard and Criteria, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Safer Chemical Ingredients List, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Safer Choice Criteria for Surfactants, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency