Ingredients
What each one is, what it is doing in the product, and what the evidence actually says. Including when the answer is that it is fine.
Every entry says what the evidence shows, including where it is thin or contested, and links out to the primary source so you can check us. We separate hazard from exposure, because almost every ingredient scare confuses the two.
Looking for a name you saw on a label rather than the one we use? Every name we index is listed A to Z, including INCI names and E numbers.
A
- Acesulfame potassium The sweetener that shares a label with another sweetener, for a reason the ingredient list will not explain.
- Agar The seaweed extract that sets a dessert without an animal in it, defined in regulation as precisely what it appears to be.
- Allantoin A quiet ingredient with a regulated strength, which is more than almost anything else in the same jar can say.
- Allulose A rare sugar that is chemically a sugar, tastes like sugar, and is subtracted from the sugar line by regulatory decision.
- Amodimethicone A silicone that goes where the damage is, and the reason the sulfate rule and the silicone rule cannot be followed separately.
- Annatto The seed extract behind orange cheese, and the colour most often mistaken for the insect one.
- Ascorbic acid An active where the evidence points at a concentration and a pH, and the label is required to disclose neither.
- Aspartame One of the few ingredients required to shout on the packet, in bold type, at a group of readers most people have never heard of.
- Avobenzone A sunscreen ingredient whose central problem is that sunlight destroys it, and whose fix is another ingredient nobody explains.
- Azelaic acid An acid that occurs in wheat and on your own skin, and one of the very few actives a pregnancy page can be positive about.
- Azodicarbonamide An additive that became famous for the wrong reason, and whose actual regulatory question is more interesting than the one that made it famous.
B
- Balsam of Peru A natural resin that is not one substance, which is why a positive test for it identifies a problem without naming it.
- Barley malt extract Contains gluten, gets no allergen warning, and is the single most common reason a cereal is not gluten-free.
- Beeswax One of the few animal ingredients whose name tells you what it is, and one of the few that divides vegetarians from vegans.
- Bemotrizinol A filter the rest of the world has had since the late 1990s, admitted to the American monograph in the summer of 2026.
- Benzoyl peroxide One substance with two regulatory lives, a printed percentage in one of them, and a use in the dairy aisle almost nobody knows about.
- Benzyl salicylate A fragrance ingredient that shares half a name with an acne treatment, and inherits worries that were never about it.
- Beta-carotene A colour that is also a nutrient, permitted in two forms the label does not distinguish, with one caution that belongs to supplements rather than to food.
- BHA An antioxidant that sits on a national carcinogen list and on an approved additive list at the same time, and the reason is worth understanding.
- BHT An antioxidant that keeps fats from going rancid, and the clearest example of a cross-market claim that circulates because it sounds like the true ones.
- Biotin A vitamin your gut bacteria already make, sold in enormous doses for hair, with a consequence that shows up in a laboratory rather than a mirror.
- Brominated vegetable oil A rare case of a regulator removing something it had permitted for decades, with the reasoning set out in full.
C
- Caffeine The most consumed stimulant in the world, and a US listing that covers one drink category and stops.
- Calcium carbonate A mineral that raises an origin question in supplements and closes it in food, and a regulation that says so explicitly.
- Caramel colour The most used colour in the world, made from a list of seven starting materials, two of which matter to readers who are avoiding something.
- Carmine A red colour made from insects, which is why it has to be named rather than hidden inside the word "colour".
- Carnauba wax The shine on a sweet is usually one of three waxes. This is the one that grew on a tree.
- Carrageenan A seaweed extract that sets and thickens, and a reputation built substantially on a different molecule that has never been in your food.
- Casein The main protein in milk, and the reason "non-dairy" is not the same as milk-free.
- Caseinates Milk protein in a salt form, and the one place a regulation was written specifically to stop a label misleading you.
- Ceramides One of the few skincare ingredients that is literally the same material as the thing it repairs.
- Citric acid The most common additive on labels, a name that points at lemons, and a regulation that openly describes the mould it is actually made with.
- Coal tar One of the oldest treatments still in the regulations, and the only one on this site whose rule requires the concentration to be printed.
- Cocamidopropyl betaine A mild surfactant chosen to replace a harsher one, which turns out to have the better documented allergy record of the two.
- Collagen An animal protein sold as a beauty product, with a research picture that neither side of the argument reports accurately.
- Colloidal oatmeal A skin protectant with the unusual distinction of a floor rather than a ceiling, and an oat question that cosmetic labelling has no machinery for.
- Cyanocobalamin A vitamin you can get from no plant, in a form that comes from no animal, and a regulation that states the origin outright.
D
E
- Egg The rare case where the labelling rules are completely on your side, and the difficulty moves entirely to the names.
- Enzymes The shortest word on a cheese label, and a regulation that says out loud it may stand for any of three different things.
- Erythritol The sugar alcohol with the best digestive record and the only open safety question in the family.
- Eugenol One molecule doing three jobs, in perfume, in food and at the dentist, which is why avoiding it takes more than reading one kind of label.
F
G
- Gelatin Collagen from animal skin and bone, and the single most common reason a product that looks vegetarian is not.
- Geraniol A fragrance material found in roses, in citronella and in most things that smell floral, including a good number that do not advertise a scent at all.
- Glycerin One of the most used ingredients in existence, an origin the label does not state, and a European definition caught mid-revision.
- Glycolic acid The smallest of the fruit acids, and the clearest case on this site of an ingredient whose label tells you nothing that matters.
- Grapefruit An ordinary fruit that appears in prescribing information, and one of the few foods a medicine label puts a number on.
- Guar gum A thickener made by grinding a bean, with an origin the regulation names outright and a legume question the ingredient list will not raise for you.
- Gum arabic A tree exudate whose botanical family sets off the wrong alarm, and a name that hides which tree it came from.
H
- High fructose corn syrup A name that promises something extreme and a regulation that specifies two numbers on either side of ordinary sugar.
- Honey The one ingredient on this site with an age on it, and the reason is not sugar.
- Hyaluronic acid A humectant sold on a single property, whose actual behaviour turns on a number no ingredient list carries.
- Hydrolysed wheat protein The best-documented case anywhere of a cosmetic ingredient causing a food allergy, and the reason we read cosmetic and food labels against the same profile.
- Hypromellose A capsule made from wood pulp rather than from an animal, and one of the few ingredients whose presence answers a question rather than raising one.
I
L
- L-Cysteine A dough conditioner at the centre of a persistent rumour, where the rumour is closer to the truth than most and the label still cannot settle it.
- Lactic acid An ingredient named after milk that normally has nothing to do with it, and the one line in the regulation that stops this being a clean answer.
- Lanolin Wool wax from a living animal, one of the few personal care ingredients whose amount you can actually read, and a known contact allergen.
- Limonene A citrus molecule that becomes a different problem after it has met the air, on a label that records neither the change nor the date.
- Linalool The most widely used fragrance material there is, with a sensitisation problem that develops after the product is opened.
M
- Magnesium stearate A manufacturing lubricant that attracts more suspicion than almost anything else in a capsule, mostly for the wrong reason.
- Maltitol The member of this family that delivers least of what the category promises, and the label rarely says how much of it you are getting.
- Maltodextrin A bulking agent whose gluten answer depends on which continent the label was printed for.
- Mineral oil One of the most avoided ingredients in skincare, and one of the few the regulations permit to make up the entire product.
- Minoxidil A blood pressure drug whose side effect became its purpose, and the only thing on the hair growth shelf that went through drug approval.
- Modified food starch Two separate worries, both usually unfounded, attached to one of the most common ingredients in processed food.
- Monk fruit A sweetener two regulators have reached opposite conclusions about, for reasons that are procedural rather than toxicological.
- Mono- and diglycerides An emulsifier that can be made from vegetable oil or from animal fat, and a label that uses the same words for both.
- Monosodium glutamate The additive with the largest gap between its reputation and its regulation, and a label rule that settles the most common worry about it.
N
O
P
- Palm oil The same ingredient, the same product, and two labelling regimes that disagree about whether you are told.
- Panthenol A well-behaved conditioning ingredient with one claim attached to it that a regulator has already ruled on.
- Parabens The most avoided preservatives in cosmetics, and a worry that rests on a finding almost everyone reports incorrectly.
- Peanut A legume that everyone files with the nuts, and an oil that the law deliberately leaves out of the declaration.
- Pectin A setting agent that comes from fruit, is described as coming from fruit, and for once leaves nothing for the label to hide.
- Petrolatum The most effective barrier ingredient there is, an oil-derived name that alarms people, and a second entry in the regulation that explains the word white.
- Phenoxyethanol The preservative that filled the gap parabens left, and one of the few ingredients where the review evidence is quietly reassuring.
- Polysorbate 80 An emulsifier whose regulation spells out its two building blocks, one of which carries the origin question this site keeps meeting.
- Potassium bromate A dough improver whose American permission comes from a standard of identity rather than from a food additive approval, which is why it is easy to look up and hard to find.
- Potassium sorbate One of the most flagged preservatives on the internet, and one of the better-studied ones in the food supply.
- Propylene glycol The ingredient whose reputation rests entirely on sharing half a name with something genuinely dangerous.
- Pullulan The capsule nobody argues about, produced by a fungus from starch, and the least common of the three.
- Pyrithione zinc The most common anti-dandruff active, with a regulated concentration range and two pieces of usage guidance that contradict how most people use it.
R
- Red 3 A revocation that reads like a safety verdict and, in the agency's own words, was a legal one. The distinction is the whole story.
- Red 40 The most used synthetic colour in American food, subject to the strictest per-batch control in the food supply and to a warning label on another continent.
- Rennet The enzyme that turns milk into cheese, available in an animal version and a fermented one, with a label that rarely says which.
- Retinol The most studied anti-ageing ingredient there is, and the one with the most confusing pregnancy advice.
- Retinyl palmitate The weakest member of the vitamin A family, in far more products than people realise, and sitting in a gap the clinical guidance never quite addresses.
S
- Saccharin The sweetener that was labelled a probable carcinogen, cleared, and left in a regulation nobody has updated since.
- Salicylic acid A beta hydroxy acid that gets treated as one ingredient when it is really several different exposures.
- Selenium A mineral with one of the narrowest useful windows on a supplement shelf, and an excess that produces the exact thing people take supplements to prevent.
- Selenium sulfide The anti-dandruff active with no permitted range at all, just two exact numbers, and a reason worth knowing for coloured or treated hair.
- Sesame A labelling law that worked exactly as written and produced the opposite of what it intended.
- Shellac The shine on a sweet, a chocolate or an apple, secreted by an insect and often listed as something else entirely.
- Shellfish One everyday word covering two groups that the rules treat separately, which is the whole difficulty.
- Silicon dioxide The additive that looks most industrial on a supplement label and asks the fewest questions once you know what it is.
- Sodium benzoate A preservative with one genuine chemistry problem, which happens only in company, and which the label will not flag for you.
- Sodium lauryl sulfate The rare case where the ingredient does deserve a reputation, just not the one it has.
- Sodium nitrite The additive behind a labelling phrase that says the opposite of what is happening, and does so lawfully.
- Sorbitol A sweetener with a legally required warning that most people read as boilerplate, and one genuine danger that is not about people at all.
- Soy lecithin Derived from soy, declared as soy, and usually not the problem people expect it to be.
- Squalane An emollient with two completely different origins, one name, and a supplier decision the reader is never shown.
- St John's wort A herbal product whose defining property is not what it does on its own, but what it does to everything else you take.
- Stearic acid A fatty acid in soap, chocolate and tablets, and one word in the regulation that people consistently read as more than it says.
- Stevia A sweetener sold on being natural, with a numerical limit a regulator has recently declined to loosen.
- Sucralose An ingredient whose most repeated criticism is factually correct, which is unusual, and does not lead where people take it.
- Sulfites A group of preservatives with their own labelling rule, and a gap that catches people who have learned to read the allergen line first.
- Sulfur One of the oldest treatments in dermatology, still in the regulations, with a different permitted strength depending on what the product claims to treat.
T
- Talc A mineral whose own safety is not really the question, and a testing requirement that four years after the statute still does not exist.
- Tartrazine One of six colours that carry a legally required warning about children in the EU, and the story behind that sentence is worth knowing.
- Titanium dioxide The clearest case on this site of evidence moving and a regulator acting on it, and of two regulators reaching different answers.
- Tocopherols Vitamin E under its technical name, where a two-letter prefix carries the origin and most readers scroll past it.
- Tree nuts A category that groups species which are not closely related, and a label that sometimes tells you which one and sometimes does not.
V
- Vanillin One molecule, three production routes, two very different words on a label, and a legal standard behind only one of them.
- Vitamin D3 Two forms of one vitamin, one number apart on the label, and a difference in origin written into the definition itself.
- Vitamin K A vitamin whose ordinary job is the thing one common medicine is designed to prevent, which makes it the clearest interaction on a supplement shelf.
W
X
- Xanthan gum The backbone of gluten-free baking, produced by a bacterium, and defined by a regulation that names everything except the one thing coeliac readers want to know.
- Xylitol A sugar alcohol with an unusual amount of evidence behind it, and one genuinely urgent warning that has nothing to do with people.