Cheat Sheet: Safer Dishwashing Detergents
One winner for each way people buy dishwashing detergents.
The dishwashing detergent question is really a fragrance and disclosure question. Phosphates and chlorine bleach are largely gone from this category already — the real filter now is whether a brand discloses its full ingredient list and whether "fragrance" is hiding something worth knowing about.
How we scoreHow we earnChecked October 21, 2026
Our winner for each way people buy
How we scoreHow we earnChecked October 21, 2026
Best hand dish soap, full disclosure
Sonett
Organic Dishwashing LiquidSonett Organic Dishwashing Liquid, Lemon, 34oz: every ingredient declared with a percentage range, scented with organic lemongrass oil, and certified to the NCP (Nature Care Product) standard. Also sold in a smaller bottle to try first.
Meets our published criteria, as of Oct 21, 2026
$18.99ViewFragrance-free hand dish soap
Ecos
Foaming Dish SoapECOS Foaming Dish Soap, Free & Clear (4 x 17 fl oz): no fragrance and no sulfate surfactant (no SLS or SLES) on ECOS's published ingredient list, and ECOS's own page states it is Safer Choice-certified (EPA's register lists 'ECOS Foaming Dish Spray Free & Clear'; we matched it by name). It sprays on as foam, so you wipe and rinse rather than fill a sink.
Meets our published criteria, as of Oct 21, 2026
$20.46ViewAutomatic dishwasher, fragrance-free tablets
Blueland
100% Plastic-Free Dishwasher Detergent Tablets 120ctBlueland Dishwasher Detergent Tablets, fragrance-free, 120 count: Blueland publishes the full ingredient list on its own page, and EPA's Safer Choice register lists Blueland's 'Automatic Dish Washer Tablet Free & Clear' (we matched this Amazon listing to it by name). Machine detergent, not hand soap.
Meets our published criteria, as of Oct 21, 2026
$36.77ViewDishwasher gel, lowest price up front
Ecos
Free and Clear Automatic Dishwasher GelECOS Free & Clear Automatic Dishwasher Gel, 40 fl oz: eight listed ingredients (one is an enzyme blend), no fragrance, and EPA's Safer Choice register lists 'ECOS Auto Dishwasher Gel - Free & Clear' (matched to this listing by name). A single bottle that cost less than the tablets or packs on Amazon when we checked in October 2026; you measure each dose yourself, so check the per-wash cost for your machine.
Meets our published criteria, as of Oct 21, 2026
$6.88View
What to avoid
- "Fragrance" with nothing else disclosed — a legal trade-secret category that can bundle dozens of undisclosed compounds under one word
- "Natural" or "plant-based" claimed with no certification — neither term is regulated on a cleaning product label and can appear with no third-party review behind it
- Chasing a brand instead of checking the SKU — some Seventh Generation products have used SLS, a known skin irritant, even under a brand that reads as eco-friendly overall
- Assuming a scented product is automatically worse — the problem is undisclosed scent, not scent itself — naming the fragrance ingredients is a different case than hiding behind the word "fragrance" alone
What to look for
- Full ingredient disclosure — including what's in "fragrance" where the product is scented
- A named third-party certification — NCP (Nature Care Product), EPA Safer Choice, USDA BioPreferred — not an adjective on the front of the bottle
- No phosphates or chlorine bleach — mostly gone from this category already, but still worth checking
- Still in production and available — a claim about a discontinued product is not useful
- 1Skip: "Fragrance" with nothing else disclosedBuy instead: Sonett Why
- 2Skip: A fragrance plus isothiazolinone preservatives (MI, BIT)See all non-toxic dish soaps, and what Dawn, Ivory, Joy, Palmolive and Mrs. Meyer's list Why
What the label card means
What to skip, and why
"Fragrance" with nothing else disclosed
A legal trade-secret category that can bundle dozens of undisclosed compounds under one word.
Know the risks: Fragrance not fully itemized"Natural" or "plant-based" claimed with no certification
Neither term is regulated on a cleaning product label and can appear with no third-party review behind it.
Chasing a brand instead of checking the SKU
Some Seventh Generation products have used SLS, a known skin irritant, even under a brand that reads as eco-friendly overall.
Assuming a scented product is automatically worse
The problem is undisclosed scent, not scent itself — naming the fragrance ingredients is a different case than hiding behind the word "fragrance" alone.
Where to buy
The full guide: how we chose
Phosphates and chlorine bleach used to be the top complaints about dishwashing detergent, and both are mostly gone from this category now — phosphates were voluntarily phased out of household dishwasher formulas industry-wide, and chlorine bleach was never common in dish liquid to begin with. The filter that still matters is fragrance: "fragrance" on an ingredient list is a legal catch-all that can cover dozens of undisclosed compounds, and it's the single biggest difference between the picks below.
What actually changed in this category
Older advice about dishwashing detergent focused heavily on phosphates and chlorine bleach. Both are worth knowing about, but neither is the live issue it once was. Phosphates were a water-softening additive that caused real damage downstream — once phosphate-laden wastewater reached rivers and lakes, it fed algae blooms that starved the water of oxygen. Most U.S. states restricted phosphates in household automatic dishwasher detergent starting around 2010, and the industry largely reformulated around those restrictions. Chlorine bleach, meanwhile, was never a common ingredient in liquid dish soap to begin with — it shows up far more in surface cleaners and laundry.
That leaves fragrance as the real filter. "Fragrance" on an ingredient list is a legal catch-all: a manufacturer can bundle dozens of individual compounds under that one word and disclose none of them, because fragrance formulas are treated as trade secrets. A product that tells you what's actually in its scent — an essential oil, a named aroma compound — is giving you meaningfully more information than one that just prints the word "fragrance" and stops.
Sonett and Mrs. Meyer's, side by side
Sonett is a German-made line certified to NCP (Nature Care Product), the German certifier GfaW's standard for ecological cleaning products — a specific, checkable standard, not an adjective on the label. Sonett declares every ingredient with a percentage range, including what's behind the scent (organic lemongrass oil in the lemon variety). That declaration includes sodium lauryl sulfate within a 1–5% fatty alcohol sulfate, the same irritant we flag elsewhere on this page, so disclosure is Sonett's strength, not an SLS-free formula. It's harder to find in a regular grocery store than Mrs. Meyer's, and it costs more per ounce.
Mrs. Meyer's is the product most people can actually pick up at a regular grocery store, and it's free of phosphates and chlorine bleach. Where it falls short of Sonett is disclosure: its own published ingredient list for the Basil dish soap (read 2026-10-25) reads "fragrance (geraniol, linalool)" and includes benzisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone, a preservative named Contact Allergen of the Year in 2013 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society. That doesn't make it a bad product — it makes it a convenience trade-off. If a bottle at your regular grocery store beats a mail-order bottle you'll actually run out of and not reorder, that's a legitimate reason to choose it.
Fragrance-free picks, and three for the machine
ECOS Foaming Dish Soap, Free & Clear is the fragrance-free hand option. ECOS publishes its full ingredient list, and that list has no fragrance and no sulfate surfactant; the preservative is phenoxyethanol. It is a spray-on foam rather than a pourable liquid, which suits wiping and rinsing more than a full sink. ECOS's own page states it is Safer Choice-certified, and EPA's register lists "ECOS Foaming Dish Spray Free & Clear", which we matched to this product by name.
For a machine, all three picks are fragrance-free, each brand publishes its ingredient list, and each has a matching EPA Safer Choice register entry (matched by product name, not barcode). Blueland's tablets are dry, pre-measured doses. Seventh Generation's Free & Clear packs are pre-measured, with each dose wrapped in a polyvinyl alcohol film that dissolves in the wash. Their list contains no SLS, which is the point of checking the SKU rather than the brand. ECOS's Free & Clear gel is a single bottle you dose yourself, and had the lowest sticker price of the three on Amazon when we checked in October 2026.
A DIY option, with a caveat
If you'd rather skip bottled detergent entirely, a common homemade recipe combines distilled white vinegar, water, liquid castile soap and lemon. We haven't been able to verify that this recipe performs reliably in an automatic dishwasher — vinegar and castile soap can react to form a soap-scum residue under some water conditions, and results vary widely by machine and water hardness. If you try it, treat it as an experiment on a load of dishes you don't mind rewashing, not a guaranteed swap.
What we're not claiming
Older, less-tested picks (a "made for baby bottles" branding claim, a "the tablets worked better for me" anecdote) don't belong on a page like this without something to check them against. We've kept this list to products we can back with either a named certification or a documented ingredient list, and said plainly where a popular pick's disclosure falls short.
See also: Green cleaning products for the environmental-impact side of the same shelf, and the Cleaning hub for the full non-toxic cleaning category.
The swaps, in full
"Fragrance" with nothing else disclosed
Fragrance is a legal trade-secret category — a manufacturer can bundle dozens of compounds under that single word with no obligation to name them. A product with a full ingredient list, including what's in its fragrance, is a meaningfully different disclosure than one that just says "fragrance."
Hides in: The ingredient list on the product's own page
Sonett Organic Dishwashing Liquid, Lemon, 34oz — every ingredient declared with a percentage range, and certified to the NCP (Nature Care Product) standard.
Sonett Organic Dishwashing Liquid, Lemon, smaller size — same formula and certification, if you want to try it before committing to the larger bottle.
Sonett Organic Dishwashing Liquid, Lemon, 10 Fl Oz, Pack of 1 | Certified Organic & Vegan - Concentrated, Biodegradable, Gentle on Hands Dish Soap Liquid, Non-GMO, Cruelty-Free
A fragrance plus isothiazolinone preservatives (MI, BIT)
Mrs. Meyer's own page for its Basil dish soap (read 2026-10-25) lists "fragrance (geraniol, linalool)" and includes benzisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone, a preservative named Contact Allergen of the Year in 2013 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society. That doesn't make it a bad product — it makes it a convenience trade-off, and it's worth reading before picking it over Sonett.
Hides in: Mrs. Meyer's own published ingredient list
Top pick: Mrs. MEYER'S
What to actually filter for
- "Fragrance" with nothing else disclosed — Fragrance is a legal trade-secret category — a manufacturer can bundle dozens of compounds under that single word with no obligation to name them. A product with a full ingredient list, including what's in its fragrance, is a meaningfully different disclosure than one that just says "fragrance."
- Assuming "natural" or "plant-based" means certified — Neither term is regulated on a cleaning product label. They can appear with no third-party review behind them at all. Look for a named certification body instead — NCP (Nature Care Product), EPA Safer Choice, USDA BioPreferred — not the adjective on the front of the bottle.
- Chasing a specific brand instead of the label — Some Seventh Generation products have used SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate), a known skin irritant, even under a brand that reads as eco-friendly overall. Check the actual ingredient list on the SKU you're buying, not the brand's general reputation.
- Assuming a scented product is automatically worse — The problem isn't scent itself, it's undisclosed scent. A product that names its fragrance ingredients (essential oils, specific aroma compounds) is not the same risk as one that hides behind the word "fragrance" alone.
How we choose
We favor full ingredient disclosure over marketing language, and we weight a named third-party certification above an unverified "eco" or "natural" claim. Where a certified pick and a widely-available grocery-store pick both have a real case, we say which is which rather than picking one and pretending the other doesn't exist.
- Full ingredient disclosure, including what's in "fragrance" where the product is scented
- Third-party certification from a named body, where one exists (NCP, EPA Safer Choice)
- No phosphates or chlorine bleach
- Still in production and available
- No active recall on the pick
Every source we cite is checked against our criteria first — see how we check our sources.
What the research says
Fragranced products-including air fresheners, dryer sheets, and perfume-and sunscreens had the largest number of target chemicals and some of the highest concentrations.
— Robin Dodson, ScD of Silent Spring Institute explains that ...
Consumer Products Contain Potentially Harmful Chemicals Not Listed on Labels — Silent Spring Institute (2012-03-08) (how we check this source)
Farmer co-led the HOMEChem experiment, in which roughly 60 scientists from 13 universities measured indoor chemistry during typical household activities in a test house. Cooking produced the largest concentrations of potentially toxic compounds, including benzene, formaldehyde, acrolein and isocyanic acid. Farmer's team reported that most emitted compounds occur in low quantities and can be cleared through ventilation.
— Delphine Farmer, PhD of Colorado State University College of Natural Sciences explains that ...
Indoor air quality experiments show exposure risks while cooking, cleaning — Colorado State University College of Natural Sciences (2022-09-21)
This paper is a key initial step towards providing actionable and practical information on how to protect yourself and clean your home.
— Delphine Farmer, PhD of Colorado State University College of Natural Sciences explains that ...
Wildfire smoke may linger in homes long after initial blaze — Colorado State University College of Natural Sciences (2023-10-13)
Sources
- Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Basil Dish Soap — full ingredient list — Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day
- Methylisothiazolinone allergy — DermNet NZ
- Search Products that Meet the Safer Choice Standard — the register entries for ECOS, Seventh Generation and Blueland's free & clear dish products — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (how we check this source)
- ECOS Foaming Dish Soap – Free & Clear — full ingredient list — ECOS
- ECOS Dishwasher Gel – Free & Clear — full ingredient list — ECOS
- Dishwasher Detergent Packs - Free & Clear — ingredient list — Seventh Generation
Common questions
Every cleaning & laundryproduct we've reviewed— what we'd buy, what we'd skip, and where each one stands.