On August 8, 2024, the EPA announced it finalized updates to strengthen the Safer Choice and Design for the Environment (DfE) Standard, which identifies the requirements that products and their ingredients must meet to earn the Agency’s Safer Choice label or DfE logo.

These updates increase the criteria products must meet to qualify for the voluntary Safer Choice label, which supports the use of safer chemicals in the marketplace.

“The Safer Choice program makes it easier for consumers and purchasers for facilities like schools and office buildings to find cleaners, detergents and other products made with safer chemical ingredients,” an EPA news release states. “Similarly, the DfE program helps people find disinfectants that meet high standards for public health and the environment.”

“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, the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention deputy assistant administrator for pollution prevention, in the news release. “We’ve 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.”

The Safer Choice label differentiates companies’ products in the marketplace and encourages the use of chemicals that meet the EPA’s stringent criteria for human health and the environment. EPA scientists examine every ingredient—no matter its concentration—to make sure Safer Choice-certified products contain only the safest-possible ingredients. With thousands of certified products, the Safer Choice label is a reliable way for people to find products whose chemical ingredients meet the EPA’s criteria for being safer without sacrificing performance.

The EPA’s DfE logo helps people identify antimicrobial products like disinfectants that meet the health and safety standards of the normal pesticide registration process required by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, as well as the Safer Choice and DfE Standard. When you see the EPA’s DfE logo on a product, you can feel confident the product performs and meets stringent EPA criteria for human health and the environment.

Additional updates in the revised standards include:

• A new certification program for cleaning service providers that use Safer Choice- and DfE-certified products. The program will help protect workers who use cleaning products, as well as the people who live or work in the spaces they clean.
• Strengthened criteria that pet care products must meet to ensure they use only the safest-possible ingredients for humans, pets, and the environment.
• Updated safer packaging criteria, ensuring primary packaging doesn’t include any intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or other chemicals of concern.
• Strengthened sustainable packaging requirements for all Safer Choice-certified products to use post-consumer recycled content and be recyclable or reusable.
• Updated criteria for wipe products to ensure certified wipes contain “Do Not Flush” language to help reduce damage to wastewater treatment systems.
• New, optional energy efficiency or use reduction criteria to encourage companies to use less water, use renewable energy, and improve energy efficiency.