Medical-grade silicone sex toys are made from silicone that has been tested for biocompatibility, meaning safe contact with the body. Food-grade silicone meets rules for contact with food. "Body-safe" is a marketing phrase with no legal definition behind it. All three can appear on a good toy, but only the first two point to an actual standard, and even those are only as reliable as the brand using them.
Silicone is the material you'll see most often, on our shelves and everyone else's, so it pays to know what the words around it mean.
Why "body-safe" on a label tells you very little
In the US, most sex toys are sold as novelty or consumer goods rather than medical devices, so nobody checks what a manufacturer means by "body-safe" before the box ships. A 2006 survey by Denmark's Environmental Protection Agency found that toys sold as "jelly" were typically soft PVC loaded with plasticizers. That kind of toy can carry the same "body-safe" sticker as one made of solid silicone.
It matters because porous materials hold on to bacteria and residue in a way silicone doesn't. We covered the difference in porous vs. non-porous materials. Our advice: treat "body-safe" as a claim to check, then go and find the actual material name.
Food-grade silicone: the kitchen standard
Food-grade silicone is the stuff of spatulas, baking mats and ice cube trays. In the US, rubber articles meant for repeated contact with food, silicone included, fall under an FDA regulation, 21 CFR 177.2600, which limits how much can be extracted from the material when it meets food.
That is a real standard. Food-grade silicone is non-porous, handles heat well and cleans easily, and plenty of good, reasonably priced toys are made from it.
What food-contact rules don't cover is long contact with mucous membranes. The testing was designed around food, not bodies. That doesn't make food-grade silicone a poor choice for a toy. It just means the label answers a slightly different question than the one you're asking.
Medical-grade silicone sex toys: what the label should mean
Medical-grade silicone is sold to device makers with biocompatibility test data behind it, usually to USP Class VI or the ISO 10993 series of standards. The FDA's guidance on ISO 10993-1 describes how device materials are evaluated for effects such as cell toxicity, irritation and skin sensitization, depending on where and for how long they touch the body.
So a medical-grade raw material has been tested for the kind of contact a toy involves. Two caveats apply. Testing lowers the odds of a reaction; it doesn't promise that nobody will ever react. And a finished toy isn't a medical device, so a "medical-grade" claim on the box is rarely backed by paperwork you can see. It's worth as much as the brand's honesty.
You also can't feel the difference. A food-grade toy and a medical-grade toy of the same firmness look and feel alike in the hand.
How to buy silicone toys with confidence
Because you can't test a toy at home, you're really judging how open the seller is. These are the things we look for:
- The material named precisely, such as "100% silicone" or "medical-grade silicone", instead of "premium materials" or "body-safe formula".
- No porous material tucked into the details, like a TPE sleeve or a "skin-feel" coating over a silicone core.
- A brand that publishes its materials or answers questions about them.
- Care instructions that match the material. Silicone toys usually pair best with water-based lube, because some silicone lubes can degrade the surface of silicone toys.
A plain "silicone" with nothing else is not automatically bad, but it's a reason to ask. "Silicone blend" is a reason to be wary: it often means silicone mixed with something cheaper, and the label won't say how much of each.
Every toy we sell is made from silicone, ABS plastic, borosilicate glass or stainless steel, and the material is listed on each product page. If you want a first silicone piece, our vibrators and strokers and cock rings are good places to start, and the lube guide covers which lubes are safe with silicone.