CBC MARKETPLACE: HOME » NATURAL CLEANERS
Marketplace puts 'natural cleaners' to the test
Broadcast: Nov 11, 2003

Dimethyl, benzyl, ammonia chloride, carbon monoxide, sodium dodecylbenzene sulphonate...

They're all chemicals that are found in everyday cleaning products. If the chemicals in household cleaners seem increasingly frightful to you, there are dozens of natural alternatives. But where do you start?

Marketplace put four different natural dishwashing liquids under our Microscope. We narrowed down our store-bought natural brands to three of the top sellers.

Nature Clean dishwashing liquid
Seventh Generation “Free and Clear Dish Liquid”
Ecover Natural Dishwashing Liquid

We also decided to test a homemade recipe:

• 1/4 cup soap flakes
• 2 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup glycerin
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon essential oil

And to really add some drama to our test, we included Sunlight, a popular cleaner made with chemicals.

We found five lucky student testers from the chef program at Toronto’s George Brown College. They’ve been trained to really know clean when they see it.

But first, we need to dig up some dirt.

This day, the students have made monkfish quenelle in a Breton sauce. They’ve kindly left us their messy pots and dishes, which we divide into equal piles.

Our dishwashing liquids have been disguised to avoid bias. The students get exactly 20ml of each product. And, since no one wants dishpan hands, the actual time spent in the sink will also be put to the test. Does one cleaner produce faster results?

And the final stage of the test. Can all our cleaners wipe out E-coli and coliform bacteria? We will be taking swabs and sending them to a lab for a microbiological analysis.

We devise a complicated scientific rating system based on pineapples. One pineapple = poor. Five pineapples = excellent.

The results?

First up: Nature Clean dishwashing liquid

The students say it was the second fastest in getting dishes clean and it cut through the grease. It scores four pineapples.

Worst on the scale? Marketplace’s natural home brew dish cleaner. It rated one pineapple because it took twice as long as any of the products tested to do the job.

Scoring three pineapples is Seventh Generation “Free and Clear Dish Liquid.” Our students say it took just a little longer to scrub the dishes than Nature Clean.

The best of the lot: Ecover Natural Dishwashing Liquid. It scored a whopping five pineapples for ease of cutting through the grease and time it took to get the job done.

Sunlight scores two pineapples – several of our students said it smelled too strong – and the dishes carried that smell after washing.

The results of our anti-bacterial tests show five pineapples across the board. No E-coli. No coliform. None of that nasty stuff.