Clean Label Project Certification

1. Review eligibility and product categories: Visit cleanlabelproject.org to confirm your product type (food, supplement, baby product, pet food, household product) is eligible for certification and review the contaminant thresholds applicable to your category.

1. Submit an application: Complete the brand and product application through the Clean Label Project portal. Provide product details including formulation, ingredient list, and intended use.

1. Pay applicable fees: Application and testing fees vary by product category and number of SKUs. Fees cover laboratory testing costs and certification administration.

1. Submit product samples: Ship product samples to Clean Label Project's designated accredited laboratory partners. Follow sample submission guidelines carefully to ensure valid test results.

1. Laboratory testing: Samples are analyzed for 130+ environmental and industrial contaminants including heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury), pesticides, plasticizers, and other harmful substances using advanced analytical methods.

1. Review results: Clean Label Project evaluates test results against their proprietary purity benchmarks. You will receive a detailed report showing contaminant levels detected across all tested parameters.

1. Earn certification (if thresholds are met): Products that pass all contaminant thresholds receive the Clean Label Project Certification seal and are listed in the public product registry. You gain access to the seal and marketing toolkit for use on packaging and in marketing materials.

1. Maintain certification annually: Resubmit product samples each year for retesting. Any significant reformulation requires retesting before the seal can continue to be displayed.

The Clean Label Project Certification evaluates products through rigorous analytical laboratory testing rather than a document review or audit process. Products are screened for over 130 environmental and industrial contaminants using advanced testing methods such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and gas/liquid chromatography.

Heavy Metals: Products are tested for lead, arsenic (total and inorganic), cadmium, and mercury — four of the most concerning heavy metals found in food, supplements, and consumer products. Thresholds are set based on regulatory guidelines and Clean Label Project's own benchmarks derived from market-wide testing data.

Pesticides and Herbicides: A broad pesticide panel screens for residues from conventional agricultural practices, including organophosphates, pyrethroids, glyphosate, and other commonly used agrochemicals.

Plasticizers and Industrial Chemicals: Products are tested for phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), and other plasticizers that can leach into products from packaging or manufacturing equipment.

Other Contaminants: Additional screening may include mycotoxins (mold-derived toxins), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and other environmental pollutants depending on the product category.

Clean Label Project benchmarks results against a proprietary database built from testing thousands of products across each category, allowing them to set thresholds that reflect what is achievable by the best-performing products in the market — not just minimum regulatory requirements. This "best in class" approach means certification signals genuine purity leadership, not mere regulatory compliance.

The Clean Label Project occupies a distinctive niche in the consumer product certification landscape, focusing specifically on contaminant testing rather than ingredient sourcing, organic status, or manufacturing practices. Founded in 2016, it gained rapid consumer recognition following high-profile investigative reports — including its own published studies — revealing alarming levels of heavy metals and other contaminants in popular baby foods, protein powders, and pet foods. These studies generated significant media coverage and drove brand demand for third-party verification.

The certification is particularly well-regarded in the dietary supplement, baby food, and pet food categories, where regulatory oversight has historically been limited and consumer anxiety about hidden contaminants is high. It competes with NSF International, USP, and Informed Sport in the supplement space, but differentiates itself by focusing on environmental contaminants rather than banned substances or label accuracy. In the baby food and pet food categories, it has fewer direct competitors and has established itself as a go-to seal for brands seeking to signal safety leadership.

Demand for clean label certifications broadly is growing, driven by increasing consumer health consciousness, social media scrutiny of ingredient lists, and regulatory pressure following Congressional investigations into heavy metals in baby food (notably the 2021 U.S. House Subcommittee report). The Clean Label Project's proactive, data-driven approach — publishing comparative product rankings publicly — has made it both influential and occasionally controversial, as brands whose products score poorly have challenged its methodology. Overall, the certification is gaining traction in North America, particularly in natural and specialty retail channels, though it remains less recognized internationally than established bodies like NSF or USP.

The Clean Label Project was founded in 2016 by a group of consumer advocates and scientists motivated by a gap between what product labels communicate and what products actually contain. The organization's founding premise was that regulatory frameworks — particularly for dietary supplements and baby food — were insufficient to protect consumers from harmful environmental contaminants that accumulate in ingredients through soil, water, and manufacturing processes. The name "Clean Label" was chosen deliberately to challenge the marketing use of that term by brands, arguing that a truly clean label requires verified purity, not just a short ingredient list.

In its early years, the organization built credibility by publishing independent research studies comparing contaminant levels across hundreds of products in categories like protein powder, baby food, and pet food. These studies, which named specific brands and products, attracted widespread media attention and established Clean Label Project as a watchdog voice in the consumer product safety space. The formal certification program grew out of this research infrastructure — brands that wanted to proactively demonstrate compliance with Clean Label Project's standards could submit products for testing and earn the certification seal. By the early 2020s, the program had expanded to cover multiple product categories and had certified products from hundreds of brands, with the baby food and supplement categories seeing the strongest adoption following increased regulatory and media scrutiny of heavy metals in those segments.