Our Quality Standards

Companies that join our Shop Healthy Program meet the below Quality Standards and also contribute financially to Healthy Child Healthy World to support the organization in its efforts to:

  • Expand awareness and understanding of environmental hazards in relation to children’s health
  • Help the public learn about healthier practices, solutions and products in the marketplace
  • Encourage daily action and informed lifestyle choices
  • Create standards and policies for safer products, foods, materials and chemicals used in the home to ultimately promote safer options and alternatives
  • Advocate for and support corporate policies and government legislation that protect children from environmental risks
  • Engage communities to make wise choices and responsible decisions

Shop Healthy Program

At Healthy Child Healthy World, it is our mission to protect children from harmful chemicals in part by promoting a “better safe than sorry” approach to product formulation and manufacturing. Our Shop Healthy program was developed in order to achieve this mission and is based on the following:

We believe products should not only be safe and non-toxic for people, but also safe and non-toxic for the environment. We are committed to working with partners to constantly improve the marketplace.

Research shows that consumers value products that reduce negative health and environmental impacts, but greenwashing is prevalent and consumers often lack the knowledge to discern legitimate options. It is part of our mission to empower and educate parents by helping them identify safer products.

We believe our partner companies should have integrity and transparency regarding their products. Companies are required to honestly screen their submissions based on our criteria as stated below.

Quality Standards Criteria

Companies or products that meet our Quality Standards exhibit a strong commitment to safer, greener chemistry through elimination of harmful chemicals or ingredients, toxic byproducts, or wasteful or hazardous materials. Every company that engages in a partnership with Healthy Child Healthy World must comply with the following criteria:


Ingredients. Products should not contain any chemicals or ingredients that are identified in our Chemicals Watch List. For a complete review of these chemicals and ingredients, please visit The Substitute It Now (SIN) List at https://www.sinlist.org/ and The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX) List of Potential Endocrine Disruptors at https://endocrinedisruption.org/endocrine-disruption/tedx-list-of-potential-endocrine-disruptors/chemicalsearch. These lists are updated as new research is released, and includes synthetic preservatives, surfactants, and petroleum-based ingredients.

Synthetic fragrance. Products should not contain any artificial fragrances, since companies are not required to release the ingredients within that fragrance. If a products lists “fragrance” on a label and the ingredients are not disclosed, the company will be required to submit a list of all ingredients in that fragrance to Healthy Child Healthy World for review.

Packaging. Products should not contain or be packaged in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials.

In addition to the above criteria, we look at factors of affordability and accessibility, as natural products can be costly and difficult to find in certain parts of the country. If a product contains a chemical in question that is of low concern, yet offers a safer, more affordable and accessible solution for families nationwide, we will review with our environmental and medical advisers to assess emerging scientific data and studies, or work with the company to identify safer alternatives. Our seal of approval is less of a certification and more of a guiding principle to help transform the marketplace.

Science Never Stops

Our community trusts us to stay on top of the latest breakthroughs, so our standards evolve as new research comes to light. We consider these standards to be a starting point, a work in progress, an opportunity to raise the bar ever higher and trust our partners will strive to adapt in order to best protect children’s health.

Healthy Child reserves the right to accept or reject Shop Healthy program partners, based on the criteria above.