Colgate

• Risk across the industry, not a finding about this company: mica is dug partly by children in India and Madagascar, and the palm-oil ingredients in soaps, shampoos and creams come from plantations on the US list for forced and child labour. Carnauba wax, jasmine and vanilla add slave-like work and child labour on farms.
• Owns or runs its own production
• Independent social audits of all its main factories
• Modern slavery statement
• It's a member of the Responsible Mica Initiative, or uses natural mica in only a few products, but doesn't trace its mica to mines that are checked independently. The initiative audits processors, but most Indian mines aren't traced and children still work in them.
• Traces or certifies most but not all of its palm oil. That doesn't count against it for Good, but the "Open supply chain" star needs all of it traced, certified or upcycled.

Research notes Colgate toothpastes sold in Australia are labelled as made by Colgate-Palmolive in Thailand; the group makes the vast majority of its products in its own plants and says those in high-risk countries have SMETA audits with findings verified closed by a third party, but it doesn't say where its toothbrushes sold here are made. Some toothpastes, such as Max Fresh Juicy Pine Lime, list natural mica, which the group names as a human rights risk without giving sourcing data. It buys about 95% of its palm through RSPO Mass Balance and traces 99.6% of its palm oil and 94.8% of its palm kernel oil to the mill (2022), but reports no mill tracing for the palm-derived ingredients used in toothpaste, and its palm supply has been linked to forced and child labour on FGV and Wilmar-linked plantations.