Are domestic laundry detergent brands safe?
On April 5, Procter & Gamble (PG.N) announced a recall of more than 8.2 million bags of laundry pods sold in the North American market and the Canadian market, involving brands such as Tide and Jiasheng. The reason for the recall is that the packaging is defective and may pose a risk to children for ingestion, which can lead to serious health problems.
According to the official website, about 8.2 million bags of the recalled products have been sold in the United States and about 56,500 bags have been sold in Canada. Consumers who have purchased the recalled products can contact P&G's headquarters in Cincinnati for a full refund and a replacement of the child safety bag used to store the detergent. The laundry detergent itself is still safe to use for laundry purposes.
The product recalled by Procter & Gamble is not a quality problem of the product itself, and the incident occurred in a foreign country. So, in recent years, what is the current situation of the domestic laundry detergent market? Is there a situation where the laundry detergent is recalled due to quality or ingredient problems? How to avoid laundry detergent with high-risk ingredients?
The top 10 domestic laundry detergent brands are mainly local enterprises
On December 6, 2023, Guotai Junan (601211. SH) Securities Co., Ltd. pointed out in the "Diversified Consumption Scenarios, Coexistence of Opportunities and Challenges - The First Coverage Report of the Personal Care and Home Cleaning Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") that laundry cleaning products are mainly laundry detergents and laundry aids. Laundry detergent products have undergone iterations from laundry soap to laundry detergent, laundry detergent, and laundry pods, while laundry aids include laundry softeners, whitening agents, etc.
In the report, Guotai Junan said that in 2019, the size of the laundry cleaning market was 67.8 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.8% from 2015 to 2019. Among them, laundry detergent and laundry aids grew rapidly. It is estimated that in 2024, the laundry cleaning market will reach 97.1 billion yuan, and the laundry detergent market will reach 51.5 billion yuan.
Guotai Junan also said in the report that in 2023, the top 10 brands in the domestic laundry detergent market share will be Blue Moon, Liby, Aomiao, Tide, Diaopai, Chaoneng, Bilang, Good Dad, WhiteCat, and Velux.
According to the data, on December 16, 2020, Blue Moon (06993. HK) was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first stock in the domestic daily chemical industry to be listed in Hong Kong. According to the company's annual report, in 2023, Blue Moon will achieve an operating income of HK $7.324 billion (equivalent to RMB 6.763 billion). Among them, the sales revenue of clothing cleaning and care products was HK$6.501 billion (equivalent to about RMB6.004 billion), accounting for 88.8% of the operating revenue.
Unilever's high-end maternal and baby laundry detergent has been found to contain bacteria
After sorting, in the past three years (from January 1, 2021 to April 11 this year), the market supervision and administration bureaus in all regions of the country have conducted random inspections on a total of 1,918 batches of laundry detergent, involving more than 20 provinces such as Guangdong, Hebei, Zhejiang, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Anhui.
Among them, 211 batches of laundry detergent total active ingredients or specified dirt cloth detergent
Taking the latest sampling notice as an example, on February 4, 2024, the Hunan Provincial Administration for Market Regulation conducted spot checks on 8,524 batches of products, involving five categories: consumer goods, building decoration materials, industrial production materials, agricultural production materials, and food-related products.
Among them, the natural soapberry original extract laundry detergent produced by Hunan Xianquan Natural Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and the infant plant extract antibacterial laundry detergent produced by Hunan Ruyi Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. were found to be unqualified in total active substances.
Judging from public reports and existing information, at present, the reason for the unqualified sampling of domestic laundry detergent products is that the total active ingredients are not up to standard. The effective detergent ingredient of laundry detergent mainly comes from the total active ingredient (i.e. the surfactant in the package ingredient list), and the higher the surfactant content, the stronger the detergency of the laundry detergent.
IT IS WORTH NOTING THAT ACCORDING TO THE DEFECTIVE PRODUCT RECALL TECHNOLOGY CENTER OF THE STATE ADMINISTRATION FOR MARKET REGULATION, AS EARLY AS NOVEMBER 23, 2022 AND DECEMBER 2, 2022, UNILEVER (UL.N) URGENTLY RECALLED 2 PRODUCTS WITHIN 10 DAYS, INVOLVING 35 TYPES OF DETERGENTS UNDER ITS HIGH-END MATERNAL AND CHILD BRAND THE LAUNDRESS, INVOLVING A TOTAL OF 5.93 MILLION BOTTLES.
The reason for the recall is that the product may contain bacteria that can pose a serious risk of infection in people who are immunocompromised, have conditions that require treatment with external medical equipment, and underlying lung disease if they enter the body.
Ingredients containing the following words should be used with caution
The raw materials of laundry detergent involve many chemical components, and there will be corresponding added materials according to different uses, and the formula is more complex.
So, are the detergents with various chemicals friendly to the baby? How to avoid high-risk ingredients and choose a safe and safe laundry detergent has become a "compulsory course" for parents.
On the whole, the raw materials of laundry detergent can be divided into active agents, solvents, preservatives, chelating agents, enzyme preparations, etc.
Among them, the active ingredient contains cocamide DEA, sodium laureth/cocoether sulfate (SLES), which should be noted. This is mainly due to the carcinogenic and allergenic risks associated with the above ingredients. In addition, phosphorus can be used to enhance the ability to decontaminate, but the ingredient can affect the body's absorption of calcium.
High-risk ingredients in preservatives include methylisothiazolinone (MIT), methylchloroisothiazolinone (CIT), benzisothiazolinone, triclosan, DMDM hydantoin, etc.
Sodium tetraborate is often used as an enzyme stabilizer, but it can interfere with the body's endocrine and reproductive systems and is moderately toxic.
As a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent, triclosan can effectively inhibit and kill a variety of bacteria, and is widely used in cleaning products, toothpaste and other products. However, studies have shown that the substance is easy to react with free chlorine in water to form a variety of harmful substances, and long-term exposure will cause certain harm to the human body. As early as 2014 and 2016, studies showed that long-term low-dose exposure to triclosan in mice increased the risk of liver cirrhosis, colitis, and bowel cancer.
In addition, parents should not relax their vigilance when encountering the following high-risk flavors and fragrances, such as benzyl salicylate, hexyl cinnamaldehyde, geraniol, citral, linalool and other 26 allergenic fragrances in the EU (see the table below).
October crystallization "disappears" high-risk components
The baby's skin is delicate, clothes, bath towels, saliva towels, etc. need to be washed and dried frequently, and the baby who encounters the oral desire period also likes to gnaw clothes, which makes parents need to wake up the spirit when choosing laundry detergent for the baby, and they can't wait to practice a pair of "fiery eyes" to distinguish the risk ingredients.
To this end, Consumer Reports has selected eight best-selling products on the market today, involving brands such as Blue Moon, WICKLE, October Crystal, British, Babycare, Good Daddy, Better Care, and Plant Care (in no particular order). The reporter found through the observation of the ingredient list and consulting customer service that the laundry detergent surfactant of WICKLE, October Crystallization and Better Care is a chemical synthesis, because the national standard of Chinese laundry detergent does not require the specific ingredients of laundry detergent to be marked on the packaging, the customer service of the above brands all said that the product ingredients are R&D formulas, which are trade secrets and are not open to the public.
Blue Moon, British, Babycare, Good Daddy, and Plant Care brands of laundry detergent surfactants are derived from plant extracts.
For the use of plant extracts for surfactants, Good Daddy's customer service said that this is mainly due to safety considerations, and the decontamination effect will not be weakened by this.
In terms of preservatives, except for the customer service of Better Protection, which said that the product does not add preservatives and flavors, the customer service of other brands said that the products contain preservatives and flavors, and the preservatives are added to inhibit the growth of bacteria and ensure the safety of use and storage time.
It should be pointed out that the customer service of WICKLE, British, and Good Daddy said that the flavors added to the products are plant extracts, and the flavors added to the products of other brands are chemical compounds.
However, the reporter found that the pictures in the comment area of the October Crystallization Classic Gentle Laundry Detergent product, as well as the earlier report, pointed out that the ingredient list of the product contained cocamide DEA, DMDM hydantoin, flavor and other ingredients, but the above high-risk ingredients were no longer seen on the latest version of the packaging.
In this regard, the reporter asked the brand's customer service for the reason, but the customer service did not reply, saying that the product has not been updated, and the specific ingredient list is subject to the actual packaging received.
In addition, the customer service of the Taobao flagship store said that the product does not contain preservatives and the flavor is a plant extract, but the customer service of the Jingdong flagship store said that the product contains preservatives and the flavor is a chemical synthesis.
In May 2023, CCTV News reported that the total active ingredient content of domestic laundry detergent has shown a trend of getting lower and lower. According to reports, the Guangdong Institute of Product Quality Supervision and Inspection conducted decontamination tests on a number of laundry detergents, among which 30 to 40 percent of the laundry detergents did not have satisfactory stain removal effects, and the white cloth was tested with different degrees of stains.
This reflects the low total active ingredient content of the above-mentioned laundry detergents. The report also pointed out that the test results found that most of the products with relatively poor decontamination effectiveness were products that implemented enterprise standards.
Zhou Xun, a senior engineer at the Guangdong Institute of Product Quality Supervision and Inspection, said that the current industry standard for laundry detergent is QB/T 1224, which stipulates that the total active ingredient content of ordinary laundry detergent should be ≥ 15%. However, this standard is not a mandatory standard, and some enterprises will automatically lower the standard and implement the enterprise standard, thereby reducing the probability of failure.
On this basis, consumer reports suggest that when you buy laundry detergent, you can see whether the product packaging is marked with "QB/T 1224", and try to choose products that implement industry standards. At the same time, the purchase of laundry detergent should be through regular channels and regular manufacturers to ensure the stability and reliability of product quality. If the laundry detergent contains active enzymes, avoid light or high temperature to avoid affecting the decontamination ability due to reduced enzyme activity.