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Triethyl Citrate

Triethyl Citrate

Made from citric acid, it keeps films flexible, adds a light soft feel and can help curb odor-causing bacteria.

What it does

The EU’s ingredient database lists it as a solvent (dissolves other ingredients) and a plasticizer (keeps other ingredients flexible).European Commission, CosIng (© European Union, CC BY 4.0) · uses put in plain words by Drop ↗

The evidence, graded

expert consensusUS safety reviewers (2014) judged citric acid and 32 salts and esters made from it, triethyl citrate among them, safe as used. At 20%, triethyl citrate neither irritated nor caused allergy in tests on people. Undiluted, it caused strong allergic reactions in a guinea pig test built to bring allergy out. The highest use they found in deodorants was 2%.Fiume 2014 · International Journal of Toxicology ↗

Graded per the methodology: strong · moderate · emerging · expert consensus. A weak source on a strong claim gets the weaker label.

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