One of the country's largest makers of natural shampoos and skin
cleansers said it is reformulating dozens of products and dropping
claims that they don't contain sodium lauryl sulfate, a cleaning
agent commonly used in mainstream brands.
Hain Celestial Group Inc., like upstart Honest Company Inc., has
long said its products have no "harsh chemicals" such as sodium
lauryl sulfate, or SLS, that could irritate some people's skin.
Instead, some of their products use an ingredient called sodium
coco sulfate, which the companies say is a milder cleaning
agent.
The Wall Street Journal last year commissioned independent
laboratory tests of several consumer products containing sodium
coco sulfate, including Honest laundry detergent and Earth's Best
baby shampoo, which is made by Hain Celestial. Testing performed by
Chemir, a division of EAG Inc., found the products contained more
than trace amounts of SLS. Multiple chemists told the Journal that
sodium coco sulfate is a blend of cleaning agents that contains
roughly 50% SLS.
The Journal shared the lab findings with both companies last
fall. Honest disputed the test results for its detergent. Hain
Celestial said last week that Earth's Best "does not add" SLS to
its products but that the company was changing its labels to
increase transparency.
In an interview Thursday Julie Marchant-Houle, the company's
general manager for personal care, said Hain Celestial had begun to
review the issue last spring and decided in November, after being
contacted by the Journal, to remove its "no SLS" claims on products
that contain sodium coco sulfate.
Ms. Marchant-Houle said Hain Celestial also plans to reformulate
the few dozen products the company makes that contain sodium coco
sulfate, with the goal of replacing the ingredient with other
cleaning agents.
"We have no concerns about sodium coco sulfate, but we are
trying to respond to consumers' preferences," she said, adding that
consumers "have a general concern with sulfates," and often don't
distinguish between the two compounds.
In addition to Earth's Best, Hain Celestial's personal-care
brands include Jason, Alba Botanica and Avalon Organics. Its brands
are sold at national retailers including Whole Foods Markets Inc.
and major drugstore chains, as well as at many small retailers
target consumers seeking natural products.
Earth's Best sells a wide range of baby products. Its biggest
business is baby food, which isn't involved in the SLS issue. The
brand also sells diapers, skin lotions, shampoos and body washes
for infants and toddlers.
Not all makers of natural household and personal-care products
avoid SLS. In addition to its presence in mainstream brands, the
cleaning agent is an ingredient in detergent from Seventh
Generation Inc., dish soap from Mrs. Meyers, a unit of S.C. Johnson
& Son, and hand soap from Method Products PBC. Many companies
that use SLS say it is safe when used in properly formulated
products.
There aren't any regulatory guidelines for what makes household
and personal-care products "natural." Many companies have taken to
calling their products natural if key ingredients are derived from
plant-based materials, even if those ingredients have been
chemically processed. Sales of products that make natural claims
have been growing faster than sales of their mainstream rivals.
Hain Celestial uses sodium coco sulfate in several Earth's Best
baby-care products, some Alba Botanica shampoos and a facial scrub,
and some of its Jason shampoos and body washes. Their containers
say they have no SLS.
The website for Jason products said it chose to use sodium coco
sulfate in some products because "it is plant-derived, meets our
high standard for gentleness, and creates a luxurious sudsy lather
during use."
The Jason brand said on its website that coconut oil, from which
sodium coco sulfate is derived, naturally contains lauryl alcohol,
which is what is used to make sodium lauryl sulfate. As such,
"there may be some amount of sodium lauryl sulfate" in Jason's
products containing sodium coco sulfate. Therefore, the brand's
website says, it would be more accurate to remove the no-SLS claims
from the brand's packaging, and it has begun that process.
Products with the new labels are expected to hit store shelves
by this summer, and will gradually replace products with the
existing labels.
The formulation changes won't be ready until later in the year
or in 2017, because it isn't easy to find a substitute that cleans
well while producing a bubbly lather that people like, said Hain
Celestial's Ms. Marchant-Houle.
Hain Celestial, which is based in Lake Success, N.Y., and owns
dozens of other organic or natural-food brands including Arrowhead
Mills flours and Terra chips, doesn't break out sales of individual
brands. Its personal-care products business last year generated
around $142 million in sales, or roughly 5% of the company's total
sales.
The Journal had two independent labs conduct tests on Honest's
laundry detergent and both found the product contained significant
amounts of SLS.
Honest, which also sells diapers and other consumer products,
has disputed the test results and says its products don't contain
SLS.
Honest disagreed with the methods used by the Journal's labs and
said its own testing found no SLS in its detergent. Honest also
said it relied on assurances from its suppliers that there was no
SLS in the product. Labels on Honest detergent jugs found on store
shelves still say the products are "Honestly free of" SLS.
During the Journal's reporting, Honest made changes to the
wording on its website, including revising the description of its
"Honestly Free Guarantee." It now says the products are "Honestly
made without" SLS and other ingredients it has banned.
Honest said it plans to change its product labels to match the
wording on its website but has no plans to reformulate its
detergent. Honest, which is based in Santa Monica, Calif., didn't
respond to a request for comment Sunday.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 03, 2016 21:05 ET (01:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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