The recent upsurge of the "Without preservative" mention on labels has drawn the attention of the French sanitary authorities. The General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control and the French Agency of Sanitary Safety of Health Products (Afssaps, as per its French acronym) made an inquiry during the second and third trimesters of 2008. Results: 50% of the products were non-compliant. Edifying … and somewhat worrying.
November 7, 2008
The
"Without preservative" mention
may be understood in different ways (refer to
our paper in "How to read labels" section
). It is trendy, and consumers think of the product as a natural one, without all the likely drawbacks due to using synthetic products.
However, the reality may be altogether different:
DGCCRF
and
Afssaps
tried to know whether the mention was trustworthy, misleading, dangerous …
Framework of this inquiry
Forty-four products labeled as "Without preservative" have been checked. Among them, liquid soaps, shower-gels, masks, body care creams or face care creams, shampoos, tooth-pastes…which are by far the most widely used products.
The inquiry targeted mainly two points:
• the misleading or trustworthy claim,
• the sanitary safety of the formula.
Every product then has been analyzed in a laboratory to verify there was no
preservative
. All the formulae have also been tested to check that their protective system was efficient enough to prevent any contamination by bacteria or microbes.
Further, labels have been checked as usual to make sure they were compliant with the current regulation.
Results of the inquiry
Out of the forty-four products tested, twenty-one have been cleared, ten have been declared as non-compliant, …
