INFORM March 2025

REGULATORY REVIEW

28 • inform March 2025, Vol. 36 (3)

EPA Updates the Safe Choice label standards

Regulatory Review is a regular column featuring updates on regulatory matters concerning oils- and fats-related industries.

Rebecca Guenard

Last summer, the US Environmental Protection Agency updated its requirements for products to meet the Safer Choice and Design for the Environment (DfE) Standard (https://www.epa.gov/saferchoice/standard). The voluntary Safer Choice label certifies the ingredients in a product are considered safer for public health and the environment, accord ing to the EPA. The agency said the changes were meant to strengthen the Standard for a product label to carry the Safer Choice logo. “We have updated EPA’s Safer Choice and DfE Standard for the first time in nearly a decade with feedback from our stakeholders to make it stronger, more transparent and to include updated packaging sustainability standards,” said Jennie Romer, the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention’s deputy assistant administrator for pollution prevention. The Standard is intended to help consumers decide between similar products that use different ingredients with varying levels of risk to their health. Cleaners, detergents, and other chemical products with frequent human exposure repre sent the main product category for the Standard. The updated stadards now include a new certification pro gram for cleaning service providers that use certified products; optional energy and water efficiency standards; and require packaging to be reusable or made from recycled material and free of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), according to an EPA press release. The agency said they also updated and clarified language in the existing Standard. Now, for products and their ingredients to qualify for the EPA’s Safer Choice label or DfE logo, they face a more stringent set of criteria to qualify, said the EPA. The agency emphasized

that stricter standards will support the use of safer chemicals in the marketplace. “When consumers see the Safer Choice label on products in stores or online, they can be confident that the products were made with the safest possible ingredients,” said Jennie Romer. INGREDIENT CRITERIA FOR SAFE CHOICE Each chemical ingredient in a formulation has a function in making a product work—whether it is to aid in cleaning by reducing surface tension (surfactants), dissolve or suspend materials (solvents), or reduce water hardness (chelating agents). Within these “functional classes,” many ingredients share similar toxicological and environmental fate charac teristics. As a result, Safer Choice focuses its review of for mulation ingredients on the key (environmental and human health) characteristics of concern within a functional class. This approach allows formulators to use those ingredients with the lowest hazard in their functional class, while still formulating high-performing products. The Safer Choice Program evaluates each ingredient in a formulation against a Master and Functional-Class Criteria doc