What I found under the sink at our rental

While I was on my last trip, one of the first places I looked was under the kitchen sink in our rental…

I do this everywhere now. Hotels, rentals, houses. I want to know what's going to touch the dishes my family eats off of.

I found a bag of Finish Powerball Ultimate. So I set it next to what I had brought from home. 

Here's what's in the Finish tablet on the left.

Fragrance, listed as "parfum". Legally, this can stand in for a mix of dozens of unnamed chemicals including those that the fragrance industry has relied on for decades to make scent last longer through a wash cycle. It's also one of the most common hiding spots in the cleaning industry for phthalates and certain hormone-disrupting compounds. There's no requirement to tell you what's actually in there, so you genuinely cannot know.

Artificial Dyes. The dye is the blue gel and the red ball that dissolves and washes all over your plates. It does nothing to make your dishes more clean. It's there so the tablet looks "high-tech" sitting in the package.

Polyvinyl alcohol. The plastic film holding the tablet together. It dissolves and disappears down the drain, but it’s plastic. Most of it survives water treatment, and ends up right back in our water and our soil.

Then a run of things most that sound questionable and are: tetrasodium etidronate, a manganese catalyst, ethylene/propylene oxide copolymer, a couple of acrylic acid copolymers, dimethicone. The chemistry behind that “Diamond Shine”. 

Now the tablet on the right. Branch Basics Dishwasher Tablets.

No fragrance. No dyes. No plastic film. A plant-based binder holds it together, so nothing microplastic goes into the water. 

The ingredients are minerals and plant-based cleansers, the same as their Concentrate and Oxygen Boost. EWG Verified, Made Safe, Leaping Bunny certified. They cut grease and dried-on food without residue. I checked the dishes that first night. 

These tablets stay in rotation at home, and I pack them when we travel. Two cents a tablet more than the conventional stuff, and I'm not running synthetic dye through a dishwasher I didn't pick.

Here's the other thing I've learned from opening all those cabinets: the dishwasher is only part of it. The spray, the hand soap, whatever's in the shower. You don't get to choose any of it when you're somewhere that isn't yours.

So I bring the Branch Basics Travel Kit that covers it. It's TSA-approved: a mini All-Purpose Spray, a mini Foaming Wash for your hands, and a mini Concentrate to refill them. 

I wipe down counters, door handles, and the remote. I wash fruit with the All-Purpose before anyone eats it. I use the Foaming Wash instead of whatever's sitting by the sink.

It's a small thing to pack, and it means I'm not relying on a stranger's idea of clean.

Xo,

Vani

P.S. The Dishwasher Tablets are $15 for 38, and they sell a 2-pack if you want to stop thinking about it for a while. Grab them here.

P.P.S. At Food Babe, we only promote products we actually use. If you buy through one of our links, we may earn a commission.

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