Does Your Dog Shampoo Use Clean Label Ingredients for Healthy Skin and Coat?
This week we were asked, "Are your ingredients clean?"
A big smile and then the answer.... "Yes! All of our products, from the healing balm, the dental powder, to our organic dog shampoo is clean label!
All of our ingredients are listed!
What Are Clean Label or Clean Ingredients?
If you've been shopping for human or dog food lately you may have noticed a new marketing trend whereby the product is marketed as having clean ingredients or having a clean label.
Have you wondered what it means?
We happen to live the "clean eating" lifestyle so we can explain!
"Clean" is a lifestyle focused on whole ingredients and deliberate purchasing as to not buy products with artificial ingredients.
When purchasing food it is easier to identify a "clean" product. You can read the list of ingredients and fairly quickly identify if it contains chemical based ingredients or whole food ingredients. So, for example, you can choose to not purchase food that contains artificial flavors, artificial colors, bad preservatives, additives, etc.
The same is true for your dog's food with some exceptions. The exceptions are of course the trace elements (vitamins and minerals) that are added to limited ingredient, minimal ingredient, or complete and balanced formulations.
For food, the trend is to use minimal ingredient recipes. So, instead of 15-20 ingredients in a product, you'd see the minimum of 5-7.
At the grocery store the other day there was a giant sign for a food product that said, "Made with real ingredients". I spent the next week talking to every person I knew about how our food is so far from natural whole ingredients that we have to advertise it as real. It is shocking!
It made me realize the clean label trend SHOULD come to the dog grooming product industry! 4-Legger would change .... nothing! All of 4-Legger's products ARE clean!
Does that mean there are "dirty label" products?
Absolutely! In fact, there are more dirty label products than clean label products!
Search online for "organic dog shampoo" and you end up with a long list of products - many that claim to be organic but contain artificial or synthetic ingredients. Here are some examples of artificial/synthetic ingredients you'll find in dog shampoo that is advertised as "all natural" and "organic":
- Potassium sorbate
- DMDH Hydantoin (DMDM Hydantoin)
- Cocamidopropyl betaine
- Sodium laureth sulfate
- Lauryl Glucoside
- Mild surfactant blend
- Naturally derived from coconut surfactant
- Cocamide MEA
- Methylchloroisothiazolinone
- Methylisothiazolinone
- Versene (EDTA)
- EDTA
- Fragrance
- Color
- Preservative
- Lauramine oxide
- Essential oil fragrance
- Cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine
While not all of these ingredients are linked to health issues, many are.
The other thing they have in common? They are all artificial - synthetic. "Naturally derived" means it came from a natural product but went through synthetic chemical processes.
4-Legger's Commitment to Reduce Environmental Toxins on Dogs
In the grooming products industry the words "organic" and "all natural" seem to mean very little. There is no enforcement of the word "organic" creating confusion for the consumer.
Ingredients may have been derived from coconut oil but they were chemically altered through processes that use other chemicals! Those other chemicals (like 1,4-dioxane and ethylene oxide) do not show up in the ingredient panel and do have links to health issues.
4-Legger's commitment to reducing environmental toxins on dogs by providing safe and non-toxic dog shampoo focused our attention on "organic" and "all natural".
When we say organic, we mean it. That promise is backed by our product being USDA Certified Organic to Food Standards!
We use minimal ingredients for a clean label product that is exactly what it says it is - safe and non-toxic for a healthy bath! Clean Ingredients! Clean Dogs!
