Viral Post Falsely Claims That Tide Detergent Is Banned in Europe & 80 Countries

Tide has not been banned in Europe and 80 countries as claimed in the viral post.

Social media users are sharing posts which claim that Tide laundry detergent, which is commonly found in many households across the globe, has been banned in 80 countries.

The claim: One of the most viral posts carries a video of a man talking about three chemicals – dioxane, ethylene oxide and sodium borate – which are allegedly present in Tide, as well as other detergents.

• The man claims that the presence of those chemicals is the reason behind the alleged ban in "Europe, 80 Countries."

(Archived versions of more claims can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: No. Tide has not been banned in Europe, or any country.

• In late 2022, the state of New York, USA, had banned laundry detergents containing high levels dioxane, a probable carcinogen. This ban affected one variant of Tide.

• However, Proctor & Gamble, which owns Tide, reformulated the product to bring dioxane down to acceptable limits, making the variant commercially available again.

How did we find out?: First, we looked for news reports about countries banning Tide laundry detergent.

• This led us to a release published on Associated Press' website on the state of New York banning laundry products containing a compound called 1,4 dioxane in 2023.

• Using relevant keywords, we looked for more information about this, which led us to a page on New York's Department of Environmental Conservation's website.

• It mentioned that the state's legislature had restricted the permissible amount of dioxane in household, cosmetic, and personal care products.

• These limits were set at less than two particles per million (ppm) until December 2022 and one ppm until December 2023 for household products, and less than 10 ppm for cosmetics.

• Apart from this, there were no credible reports of Tide being banned.

Is it banned in other countries?: There were no reports, press releases, or official documents to corroborate this claim.

• Tide is still available for purchase on several e-commerce websites in Europe. For instance, we found that one could still buy Tide's various products on Amazon's German, Italian, French, and British websites.

• However, in 2010, the European Union had proposed a ban on phosphates, which act as water softeners, in household cleaning products, in order to protect its waters.

• Proctor & Gamble (P&G), which is Tide's parent company (which also makes other detergents), called this as a "win-win" in a report by The Guardian , as it had already removed phosphates from this line of products in other countries.

• People in the USA can still buy Tide, as seen on Amazon's US website.

• Tide is also easily available on e-commerce websites and in retail outlets in India.

Does Tide contain the chemicals mentioned in the claim?: To find the list of chemicals used to formulate Tide, we went to Tide's website.

• Here, we came across a page which mentioned that all of Tide's recently manufactured products were made in accordance with New York's dioxane limits, and were "not banned anywhere in the US or Canada."

• On going through Tide's ingredient list for all its variants, we did not see any mention of dioxane or ethylene oxide.

• The detergent indeed contains sodium borate, which it lists as a "process aid" used for stabilising enzymes.

• Looking into this further, we found that a process aid is a substance added to a product during its manufacturing process, to help make the end product.

• In this case, it would mean that sodium borate, commonly known as Borax, is added to stabilise enzymes in detergents, which help clean deep stains.

More on sodium borate: Borax is a commonly used, readily available mineral used for household cleaning, which is dangerous if ingested.

• It is a major component in making slime, which children often play with.

In a nutshell: Tide has not been permanently banned in "Europe, 80 countries" as claimed.

• It contains only one (sodium borate) of the three chemicals mentioned in the claim, which has been widely used as a natural cleaning agent in many households.

• The state of New York had restricted the amount of dioxane in all laundry detergents sold in the state, and did not single out Tide.

• Tide is still available for purchase in many European countries.

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