Concern over what's in our products has sparked a new generation of Web sites that spell out the ingredients in almost everything you buy.

The newest data base beyond ingredients to include social responsibility.

This site guides you to what it deems to be good products, made by good companies hence the name, GoodGuide.com.

GoodGuide.com is the brainchild of a UC Berkeley Environmental Sciences professor who himself wanted to know more about the products he uses.

The site takes ratings a step further than other rating services by looking at the manufacturer's social responsibility as well as the health effects.

"What we're trying to do is basically pull together the most comprehensive and credible science in the world, and then filter it through your preferences," said Dara O'Rourke, PhD. "So you tell me what you care about and we can help you find products that match your values."

You can also get ratings for products you're curious about.

Take Dial Complete Antibacterial Foaming Hand Wash, for example.Go to the GoodGuide Website, enter the product name in the search bar, click search, and up pops information compiled from national and international data bases.

The GoodGuide Web site gives Dial Complete Antibacterial Foaming hand wash an overall rating of 6.5 out of ten. On health performance, it gets a 7.8 -- that's good. The environmental performance gets a fair rating of 5.5. And the social performance rating is 6.4.

The site explains the reasons behind the ratings. It says the foaming hand wash has some ingredients that may cause skin or respiratory irritation. The company gets an average score on employee benefits and a below average score for corporate governance.

GoodGuide also offers alternative products that do the same job, but rate higher the key categories.

The company says the Good Guide staff scours the Internet, checks with manufacturers and consults with testing labs. They say manufacturers may call into report formula changes, but they do not influence the ratings.

"The American public deserves this information. They should be getting full ingredient lists, full hazard information, full environmental information." said O'Rourke.

Even in early stages, GoodGuide.com is getting high marks. It's one of only a handful of new companies deemed best of show, when it debuted in September.

GoodGuide says right now it rates 60,000 products, mostly in the personal and home care categories. The company hopes to add more categories by the end of the year.

They're currently working on an application that lets you text message a product's UPC code while you're in the store, and get the ratings immediately on your cell phone.

More information:

Skin Deep Database