It’s clear that analytical testing is a persistent gap when it comes to ingredient safety and material health. As the number of companies we research and evaluate continues to grow we’re getting a clearer picture that this element is a critical part of a comprehensive and credible approach to chemicals management. Depending on the type of products your company is making, it’s possible that you need to integrate lab testing at multiple points in the product lifecycle.

For example, if you’re making a formulated product like skincare then a smart testing strategy will likely include testing some kinds of raw materials, ingredients, finished products at the manufacturing facility, and in-store products at point of sale. Based on our experience, you probably don’t need to test every one of these all of the time. A solid testing strategy will help you prioritize in ways that limit costs while maximizing risk-mitigation for the company and your customers.

Your analytical testing strategy should likely include both compliance and contamination components. For compliance, we’re talking about confirming that your supply chain is not using intentionally added ingredients that are subject to restrictions detailed in a Restricted Substances List or similar. If you’re telling customers that you don’t use certain kinds of ingredients like parabens or formaldehyde in your products, then you need some data to confirm that those ingredients are not in fact being used within your supply chain. Multi-tiered and global supply chains make this increasingly important as companies and their brands are relatively detached from the upstream phases of the product lifecycle (i.e. raw material production, formulation, finished product manufacturing).

You should also be using lab results as a way of identifying and managing potential sources of contamination in your products. Contaminants are sometimes called “unintentionally-added ingredients”, “process chemistry”, “manufacturing byproducts” or other terms depending on your industry. While this kind of testing can often be the purview of a product quality lead or team depending on the type of products being tested, it’s important to include chemical hazard and toxicity. Regardless of the types of products your company makes and sells, there are multiple potential sources of contamination that may impact safety and quality:

Raw materials

Some kinds of raw materials have naturally-occurring sources of contamination like those that are extracted from the earth’s crust (e.g. clay-based ingredients like bentonite), and some kinds of plants (e.g. cocoa, cinnamon)

Ingredient and material storage & processing

The way raw materials are stored and processed can be sources of contamination. For example, plastic bins or totes used to gather and transport raw materials can transfer unwanted chemicals like PFAS. The way some ingredients are derived, including extraction processes used for ingredients that come from plant tissues like leaves, stems, or blossoms can leave chemical residues like volatile organic compounds.

Manufacturing processes

The manufacturing equipment itself, chemicals used as part of a manufacturing process (e.g. gluing or concentrating), or the products used to clean and maintain manufacturing equipment can represent a source of contamination for finished products.

Packaging materials

Packaging is a uniquely challenging source of contamination for certain kinds of products, specifically formulated products like personal care, beauty, cleaning, and laundry. Some companies end up developing and implementing dedicated packaging restricted substances lists because the kinds of chemicals and materials used in packaging represent a significant source of hazardous material usage for their finished products (e.g. polystyrene or PVC packaging)

For formulated products like beauty, cosmetics, bodycare, skincare, haircare, and cleaning & laundry, understanding and reducing contamination from plastic packaging should be a priority. The reason: Some kinds of plastics can leach, or release toxic chemicals into the products themselves.

Previous research has shown similar effects to humans, including threats to reproductive health and obesity, from exposure to toxic chemicals in plastics. Some chemicals used as additives in plastics and substances that contaminate plastics are known to disturb hormones, with potential impacts on fertility, child development, links to certain cancers, and metabolic disorders including obesity and diabetes. Source here.

While we’re focused mainly on the safety considerations for families using products themselves, plastic packaging can also create health, environmental and social impacts during other phases of the lifecycle. Making plastics can be particularly toxic for workers and communities living near those industrial facilities. Plastic pollution can impact marine ecosystems. Micro and nanoplastics are becoming ubiquitous and represent a potentially profound source of health impacts to our families. More on nanoplastics and our health in this blog.

Like many ingredient safety and sustainability issues, decisions around packaging can be complex. For example: Your company may want to use more post-consumer recycled plastic in packaging to reduce environmental impacts compared to virgin plastic. But by doing so, you could inadvertently increase contamination risks from leaching. That’s because the plastic recycling process may actually increase the number and concentration of chemical additives present in the packaging system.

Different batches of recycled pellets can have different kinds of chemicals in them, including some that are not typically used as plastic additives like pesticides and pharmaceuticals. This trade-off between safety and environmental impact is tricky to navigate. On one hand, you have a source of environmental impacts that is very visible to customers. On the other, you have a less visible and difficult to communicate source of potential contamination and toxicity. On a third hand, you have a type of material that, regardless of whether it is recycled or virgin in nature, appears to be creating widespread contamination of our bodies and planet at a cellular level i.e. via micro and nanoplastics.

The problem is complex. We have found that while the solution is conceptually straight-forward, addressing it can be operationally challenging. A simple solution? Transition out of plastic packaging systems all together. Use raw materials that don’t carry the same nature or extent of trade-offs like wood and paper, glass, or metal. Source these materials responsibly, use high-percentages of recycled materials, and design the packaging for reuse or refill.