Annual science review and standards update

December 12, 2023

By Samara Geller, Senior Director of Cleaning Science

Our 2023 science review and criteria update is finalized. Our updated criteria, including lists of unacceptable and restricted ingredients for each program are below:

What this means for our current EWG VERIFIED brands: Individual members of EWG VERIFIED will be notified if their EWG VERIFIED product requires additional review or substantiation as a result of  these updates. As a reminder, we review only those products that are close to the end of their contract. Note: Scores in Skin Deep� may not reflect changes immediately.

EWG will host a town hall in January 2024 to preview our updates for personal care, cleaning and diaper products and to answer questions. We will announce key changes and clarifications to our criteria documents and our lists of unacceptable and restricted ingredients. Highlights will include:

  • Retinol and retinoids
  • Green tea extract
  • Synthetic beeswax 
  • Mango seed butter
  • Alkyl polyglucosides 
  • Updated approach to concentrates of cleaning and personal care products.  

Authoritative lists and core toxicity datasets screened for new or changed listings for potential updates to our database scoring and lists of unacceptable and restricted ingredients, including but not limited to:

  • Cosmetic Ingredient Review  
  • European Union Annexes II and III 
  • Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of chemicals and Community Rolling Action Plan carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxicants
  • International Agency for Research on Cancernewest monographs

For questions about our update, please contact [email protected].