Tetra Sodium EDTA ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is a chelating agent that binds trace metal ions, helping protect formulas from discoloration, rancidity, texture changes, and preservative weakening.
What does Tetra Sodium EDTA do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is a chelating agent that binds trace metal ions, helping protect formulas from discoloration, rancidity, texture changes, and preservative weakening.
Is Tetra Sodium EDTA clean?
Clean-beauty frameworks commonly flag or restrict it because of environmental persistence concerns, not because it is a frequent skin sensitizer at typical cosmetic levels. It is generally well tolerated on skin in low-use rinse-off and leave-on formulas.
Is Tetra Sodium EDTA sustainable?
This material is synthetic and typically derived from petrochemical feedstocks. It is not readily biodegradable and can persist through wastewater treatment, where it may keep metal ions in soluble complexes.
Is Tetra Sodium EDTA COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic standards. From a Green Chemistry perspective, its strong performance is offset by nonrenewable sourcing and poor biodegradability.
How does Tetra Sodium EDTA work chemically?
The molecule is an aminopolycarboxylate salt with multiple carboxylate and amine donor sites that form very stable complexes with calcium, magnesium, iron, and copper ions. Typical cosmetic use is about 0.01% to 0.2%, with good stability across a broad pH range and stronger chelation in neutral to alkaline systems.
Last updated 2026-05-15