Cleaning Products

In the cleaning products marketplace, retailers evaluate manufacturers based on product performance, how they compare against other products and sustainability factors.

Backed by decades of experience in chemical specialty products testing, we help manufacturers boost confidence in the quality, safety, performance and the environmental sustainability of home and commercial cleaning supplies. We’re driving innovation in store brand specification development.

UL’s solutions and services help manufacturers clearly communicate product attributes through proven benchmarking and comparison studies in our certified testing laboratories.

The benefits of working with UL

Our independent testing laboratories replicate real-world applications to provide accurate, reliable performance testing data. UL provides:

• Decades of industry experience and internationally recognized standards
• Quick turnaround times on high sample volumes
• Competitive pricing
• Proven processes
• Customized testing performance methods
• Stability testing
• Sustainability services
• Successful product launch services, including:
  • Assistance achieving national brand equivalency through the use of microbiological, analytical, physical, sensory and performance analyses through cleaning product testing
  • Guidance in addressing the quality of private label products as they compare to national brands
  • Help uncovering potential safety concerns within the scope of test protocols in our chemical analysis laboratory
  • Reviews of product packaging for compliance
• Supply chain monitoring
• Local and global market services with our worldwide presence

The Process

UL provides reviews and services, including developing quality protocols, early in the product development cycle to help identify improvement areas which reduce exposure to product failure and recall incidences. We create effective, quality driven product specifications to help manufacturers and retailers bring safe, high performing products to the marketplace.

We also offer sensory evaluation services by both trained expert and consumer panels in our national testing labs to help optimize products pre-launch. Consumer insights can help determine product attributes that influence buying decisions.

We can also help manufacturers further by ensuring products address advanced store brand specifications, are generally on-brand and meet customer expectations.

Our four levels of comparative evaluations are:

• Standard – The minimum basic set of tests for equivalency comparison to the national brand.
• Technically Advanced Quality Assurance (TAQA)® – Additional retailer-preferred testing and quality assurance services, including a three-member trained sensory evaluation panel.
• Robust – More rigorous testing, which could include consumer product testing or fully trained panels, with an increase in the number of physical and performance tests.
• Degree of Difference (DOD) – Testing that compares a number of competitor samples, a national reference brand sample and the manufacturer’s sample. This evaluation includes a statistical analysis comparing the DOD to a 95% confidence level, a five-member trained sensory evaluation panel, where applicable and a packaging claims comparison.

Brand Protection Standards

Our goal is to offer the ultimate in quality assurance for brand protection.

UL experts conduct safety and performance evaluations to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International standards and the Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) methods. UL’s independent auditing body is ACLASS accredited to provide factory certification services under the scope of current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP).

UL’s comparative product evaluation program is based on recognized global standards and methods, including ASTM, CSPA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) label warning statements.