What "Non-Toxic" Means at Truly Free Home

There is no legal or regulatory definition of "non-toxic." No government agency or industry body sets a standard for what a product does or does not contain to use that word. Any brand can put "non-toxic" on a label without meeting any defined bar at all.

Because that word carries real weight with the people who trust us with what they clean their homes with, and because nothing outside our company holds us to a standard, we built our own -  publicly, and specific enough that you can check our work.

Our Standard

"Non-toxic" at Truly Free Home means every ingredient in a formula has been screened against the categories of ingredients most associated with potential hormone disruption, increased cancer risk, reproductive harm and other well-documented health concerns. 

In practice, that means we fully disclose our ingredients and formulate without:

• Parabens

• Phthalates

• Formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives

• PFAS ("forever chemicals")

• Chemical UV filters

• Ethanolamines (DEA, MEA, TEA)

• Synthetic dyes and petroleum-derived colorants

• Ammonia and sodium hypochlorite

• Undisclosed synthetic fragrances

Ingredients that fall into more nuanced categories, where the concern is about a specific contaminant or use case rather than the ingredient itself,  are held to a higher, tested standard rather than excluded by name alone.

Where the Nuance Matters

A standard only means something if it holds up on its edge cases, not just its easy calls.

Ethoxylated surfactants, like the alcohol ethoxylate in our dishwasher detergent, are often avoided industry-wide because the manufacturing process used to make them (ethoxylation) can leave behind 1,4-dioxane, a contaminant of concern — not because the surfactant itself is the issue. Rather than exclude the ingredient by name, we test for the actual risk: our dishwasher detergent is independently lab-tested and confirmed non-detect for 1,4-dioxane.

Fragrance is not limited to "natural" sources in our formulas. We do use nature-identical synthetic fragrance components in the signature scent of our laundry detergent.  These are ingredients that are chemically identical to what's found in nature, fully disclosed, free of hidden fillers or carriers and screened against the same standard as every other ingredient.

What This Doesn't Mean

It doesn't mean "chemical-free."  That isn't a real thing, and no product can honestly claim it. It doesn't mean "all-natural." It means we've applied a defined, ingredient-by-ingredient standard, tested rather than assumed wherever testing is the only way to know, and disclosed with full transparency so you never have to take our word for it.

---

This standard is reviewed and updated as ingredient science, testing methods, and our formulations evolve.