Lead, carcinogens, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, diglycerides, formaldehyde, imidazolidinyl and a slew of other largely unpronounceable ingredients are mainstays in our food and beauty products and assailants on our health. A new iPhone app and its web version are helping consumers make informed purchases at the point of sale.

GoodGuide gives consumers access to product ingredients (the good and bad ones) and their side effects, while also providing information on how socially and environmentally active the manufacturer is.  Shoppers enter a product’s name in GoodGuide and receive a combined score that reflects that product’s harmful ingredients and severity of related side effects (think rash vs. cancer). GoodGuide also shows secondary information like whether the item or its manufacturing produces toxic waster, or whether the manufacturing company has been sued for discrimination.

Dara O’Rourke, an environmental and labor policy professor at Berkley, began collecting data for GoodGuide in 2005 and launched the consumer website in September 2008. O’Rourke is not new to the practice of holding companies publicly accountable for their ingredient quality and social and environmental practices. Twelve years ago, his research and report on malignant Nike factory conditions in Vietnam led to backlash and boycotts.

GoodGuide is still perfecting its revenue stream. O’Rourke rejects advertising because of conflicting advertiser interests, but will license the company’s wealth of data to governments and retailers.

I used GoodGuide to get the skinny on my Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla milk from Blue Diamond and was impressed that this niche product was one of the 70,000 listed.

• Overall rating 6.4
• Health/nutrition (the element consumers are most educated in) 10
• Environmental 4.2
• Social 5.0

It’s not too likely that Blue Diamond’s sub-average social rating will deter me from a future purchase because its overall rating is high, it’s affordable and I like the taste.

GoodGuide achieves its primary objective of connecting customers with immediate product information. If used on a large scale, it becomes a powerful tool to rid our drug store and supermarket shelves of harmful and negligent products more expediently than the House, Senate, FDA and EPA can convene to sign a new regulation.

Historically lambasted companies might find a friend in GoodGuide. I did a quick search for Nestle–known for its infant formula debacle in Africa–expecting its Social rating to be low. Instead, I found that Neslte is now rated an 8 in this category, which will lead me to further sleuthing and potentially lift my personal boycott of the brand.

Read the full article in the New York Times.