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Household ingredient · Fluorescent whitening agent

Optical brighteners

Fluorescent dyes that make fabrics look whiter by converting UV light into blue light; they stay on clothes after washing.

  • Optical brightener
  • Expert review pending
No concern Level 0 of 4 How concern levels work

A whole food or a benign function, with no credible concern. It never costs points. The concern level sets how many points optical brighteners costs on a product’s receipt.

Rules around the world

WhereStatusDetailsDateSource
European Union Permitted Detergents must list optical brighteners whatever their concentration (Annex VII A). — [1]

“Banned” means explicitly prohibited or withdrawn after review; “not permitted” means never authorized there. We use each regulator’s own words.

Names GoodSwap recognizes on labels (19)
  • tinopal
  • brightener
  • brighteners
  • optical whitener
  • fluorescent agent
  • optical whiteners
  • optical brightener
  • optical brighteners
  • stilbene brightener
  • fluorescent brightener
  • fluorescent brighteners
  • fluorescent brightener 28
  • fluorescent brightener 351
  • fluorescent whitening agent
  • fluorescent whitening agents
  • disodium diaminostilbene disulfonate
  • disodium distyrylbiphenyl disulfonate
  • disodium 4 4 bis 2 sulfostyryl biphenyl
  • tetrasodium diaminostilbene disulfonate

Sources

  1. Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on detergents

    European Union (Official Journal) · Mar 31, 2004 · Law

    “The following classes of constituent, if added, shall be listed irrespective of their concentration: - enzymes, - disinfectants, - optical brighteners, - perfumes.”

    eur-lex.europa.eu