Scored on what brands publishThe order is ours, and every page says soEvery claim links to its source

LowTox Review
Guide

Reading a home care ingredient list in 90 seconds

A washing-up liquid sold in the United States can lawfully carry no ingredient list at all, which is why reading one is a skill rather than a habit. This is the procedure we use, in the order we use it.

LowTox Review editorial team Published 5 min read

Updated : Published a guide, reading a home care ingredient list in 90 seconds.

Start with the fact that explains everything else on the pack. Food and cosmetics sold in the United States must carry a full ingredient list. Cleaning products need not.

A food label lists ingredients by common or usual name in descending order of predominance by weight 1. A cosmetic label lists every ingredient in descending order, with the option of putting everything at or below one per cent in any order and colour additives last 2. A household cleaner is regulated instead as a hazardous substance, and the federal duty is to name the hazardous substance, or each component contributing substantially to the hazard, alongside the warnings 3.

So a full list on a US cleaning product is a choice. Some brands publish everything, some publish a category, some publish nothing, and the label gives you no way to tell which kind of silence you are looking at.

The two state exceptions, and what each actually forces

California is the reason most US ingredient pages exist. The Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017 added Chapter 13 to Part 3 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code, covering cleaning, air care, automotive and polish products sold in the state. Website disclosure applies from 01/01/2020 and label disclosure from 01/01/2021 4.

The website duty is the substantial one: every intentionally added ingredient in descending order by weight down to one per cent, a CAS number and a functional purpose for each, nonfunctional constituents at or above 0.01 per cent, fragrance allergens at or above 0.01 per cent by reference to the European cosmetics list, and a link to the safety data sheet. Ingredients claimed as confidential are marked withheld rather than dropped 5. The label duty is thinner: the designated-list ingredients plus a fragrance allergen statement, or the full list, with a website address and a toll-free number 6.

New York is the one to be careful with. The 2018 disclosure programme was declared null and void by a court in August 2019, for having been introduced without rulemaking under the State Administrative Procedure Act, and the Department of Environmental Conservation says it is still amending 6 NYCRR Part 659, with best management practices published as guidance rather than as a binding requirement 7. Treat a posting credited to New York as voluntary.

If the pack is British or European

The European rule is different in kind. Annex VII to Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 requires named ingredient classes above 0.2 per cent to be declared in weight bands: phosphates, phosphonates, the surfactant types, bleaching agents, chelating agents such as EDTA and NTA, soap, zeolites and polycarboxylates. Enzymes, disinfectants, optical brighteners and perfumes are listed whatever their concentration, as are preservatives, named in cosmetics nomenclature, and allergenic fragrances above 0.01 per cent. A full ingredient data sheet must be published on a website 8.

That gives you families and bands rather than a recipe, the mirror image of the US problem. Regulation (EU) 2026/405 of 11/02/2026 was published on 02/03/2026 and repeals 648/2004 after a transition set out in it 9. Packs on shelves today follow the older rules.

INCI, and how to recognise it

INCI stands for the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients. Article 19 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 requires a cosmetic to list ingredients using the common ingredient name from the glossary provided for in Article 33, in descending order by weight, with anything below one per cent in any order 10. Cleaning products are not cosmetics, so INCI on a washing-up liquid is a choice, and one you can look up entry by entry.

Recognising it takes a moment. Water appears as Aqua, fragrance as Parfum, plant material as a Latin binomial with the part and the process, such as Citrus Limon Peel Oil, and colours as CI plus five digits. Anything reading as coconut-derived cleanser is marketing text where a name should be.

The six families worth finding fast

Almost every home care formula is built from the same handful of jobs, and the US Environmental Protection Agency organises its Safer Chemical Ingredients List by functional class in much the same way. Fragrances sit outside that list under separate criteria, which is worth holding on to when you reach the fragrance line 11.

Six ingredient families, the names they travel under and the question each one raises

FamilyCommon names on a labelWhat it doesWhat to watch for
SurfactantsSodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, cocamidopropyl betaine, decyl glucoside, coco glucosideLowers the surface tension of water so oils and soils lift away and stay suspendedWhether you have a name or a class. A European pack may give anionic surfactants and a band instead 8
BuildersSodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium citrate, sodium silicate, zeolite, polycarboxylatesHolds the wash alkaline and takes calcium and magnesium out of play so the surfactant is not spent on hardnessPhosphates and phosphonates are declared by band on a European pack above 0.2 per cent, so their absence is checkable 8
ChelantsTetrasodium glutamate diacetate, sodium gluconate, tetrasodium EDTA, HEDPBinds metal ions so they cannot redeposit on the load or destabilise the formulaNamed on a European pack above 0.2 per cent. On a US pack a chelant may appear only in the website list 8
EnzymesProtease, subtilisin, amylase, lipase, mannanase, and most entries ending in -aseCatalysts that cut specific soils into fragments: protein, starch, fats and gums respectivelyA European pack lists enzymes at any concentration, so a pack naming none contains none. A US pack carries no such duty 8
PreservativesBenzisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, phenoxyethanol, sodium benzoate, benzyl alcoholStops bacteria and mould growing in a water-based product after first openingWater in the formula and no preservative in the list means the list is incomplete. European packs name preservatives at any level 8
Fragrance and dyeParfum, fragrance, limonene, linalool, citronellol, geraniol, CI plus five digitsAdds scent and colour. Neither does anything to the soilParfum is one word for a mixture of dozens of materials. Named allergens above 0.01 per cent surface on a European pack and in a Californian disclosure 48

What the order tells you, and where it stops

Descending order by weight is the convention almost everywhere it is required, and it stops being informative at one per cent. Cosmetics may group everything at or below one per cent in any order 2, and the Californian website disclosure works the same way 5. So the first three entries carry information and the tail carries none: a preservative, a dye, an enzyme and a fragrance allergen all sit below one per cent, and their order means nothing.

Two limits follow. In a liquid, water is almost always first, so the first informative entry is the second one. And a European detergent pack is a class-and-band declaration rather than an ordered list 8.

Tells that a list is incomplete

  • Any closing phrase of the and other ingredients kind. That is not a category, it is the end of the disclosure.
  • A lone fragrance or parfum entry. Lawful everywhere here, and the single largest gap in most lists.
  • A list that stops before a preservative in a water-based product. Either the preservation system is off the page or the brand has not said what replaces it.
  • Functions given for some entries and not others, which usually means two sources were merged and one was thinner.
  • Withheld or trade secret markers. Honest, and also the brand telling you the list is partial 5.
  • Descriptions where names should be: plant-derived cleanser, coconut surfactant, mineral-based builder.

Where the full list hides

In order of how often it works: the manufacturer’s own ingredient page, which usually exists because California requires it and covers the whole range 4; the safety data sheet, normally linked from the same page; and in Europe the ingredient data sheet Annex VII requires on a website 8.

The 90 second procedure

  1. Nought to ten seconds. Identify what you are holding. A full ingredient list, a class-and-band declaration, or a hazard warning with no list. Only the first can be read as a formula.
  2. Ten to twenty-five seconds. If there is no full list, leave the pack. Open the manufacturer’s ingredient page, then the safety data sheet, in that order.
  3. Twenty-five to forty seconds. Read the first three entries. In a liquid that is water, the main surfactant and the main builder or solvent, and those three settle what kind of product it is.
  4. Forty to sixty seconds. Find one name from each of the six families. Note which family is absent. An absence is either a formulation choice or a disclosure gap, and knowing which is the whole exercise.
  5. Sixty to eighty seconds. Run the incompleteness tells. A trailing catch-all phrase, a lone fragrance entry, no preservative in a water-based product, withheld markers, descriptions standing in for names.
  6. Eighty to ninety seconds. Ask what would change your mind, then look for it. If the answer sits on a website rather than the pack, it is still an answer. If it is nowhere, that is the finding.

None of this tells you whether a product suits your household, and none of it is a safety assessment. It tells you how much of the formula the brand has put on the record, and how hard it made you work to find it, which is the only thing a label can settle in 90 seconds.

Related on this site

Explainer

Fragrance-free, unscented and no added fragrance are three different claims
Comparison

Free-from claims from twelve brands, and what each one commits to
Guide

The certifications explained

Sources

  1. 21 CFR 101.4, Food, designation of ingredients Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. Descending order of predominance by weight, by common or usual name. Checked 21/08/2026.
  2. 21 CFR 701.3, Designation of ingredients Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. Cosmetic ingredient declaration, the one per cent grouping option and the treatment of colour additives, fragrance and flavour. Checked 21/08/2026.
  3. 15 USC 1261, Federal Hazardous Substances Act, definitions including misbranded hazardous substance Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. Paragraph (p)(1)(B) requires the name of the hazardous substance or of each component contributing substantially to the hazard, not a full list. Checked 21/08/2026.
  4. Senate Bill 258, Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017 California Legislative Information. Operative dates of 01/01/2020 for online disclosure and 01/01/2021 for label disclosure, the definition of a designated product and the 0.01 per cent fragrance allergen threshold. Checked 21/08/2026.
  5. California Health and Safety Code section 108954.5 California Legislative Information. Content of the website disclosure: ordering, CAS numbers, functional purpose, nonfunctional constituents and the withheld marking. Checked 21/08/2026.
  6. California Health and Safety Code section 108954 California Legislative Information. The two label options, and the requirement for a website address and toll-free number. Checked 21/08/2026.
  7. Household Cleansing Product Information Disclosure Program New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The August 2019 decision voiding the programme policy, and the ongoing amendment of 6 NYCRR Part 659. Checked 21/08/2026.
  8. Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 on detergents, Annex VII EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union. Ingredient classes and weight bands above 0.2 per cent, enzymes, disinfectants, optical brighteners and perfumes at any concentration, preservatives in cosmetics nomenclature, allergenic fragrances above 0.01 per cent, and the website ingredient data sheet. Checked 21/08/2026.
  9. Regulation (EU) 2026/405 on detergents and surfactants, repealing Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union. Regulation of 11/02/2026, published in the Official Journal on 02/03/2026, with digital labelling provisions. Checked 21/08/2026.
  10. Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products, Articles 19 and 33 EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union. The list of ingredients, the common ingredient name glossary, descending order by weight, the one per cent rule and the nano marking. Checked 21/08/2026.
  11. Safer Chemical Ingredients List, functional classes United States Environmental Protection Agency. Functional class headings used to organise the list, and the note that fragrances sit outside it under separate criteria. Checked 21/08/2026.
  12. 29 CFR 1910.1200, Hazard Communication Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Safety data sheet content, and paragraph (i) permitting the specific chemical identity and exact percentage to be withheld from section 3 as a trade secret. Checked 21/08/2026.