PIF comes for Product Information File; this requirement, if not new, is clearly described and strengthened in the European Regulation 1223/2009 on cosmetic products, mandatory since 11 July 2013. More than merely a further administrative layer, it is a better guarantee of the safety of the cosmetic and hygiene products we use every day. Its content cannot be used as a marketing argument to users, but this document is in the interest of consumers. For professionals of the cosmetics world, new pressures and constraints…not that easy to comply with, as understood during the 11th Regulation Conferences held by COSMED, the French Association of small-and medium-sized Manufacturers of Cosmetics on March 24th.
In a world full of doubt and recurrent concerns about the toxicity or the safety of this or that cosmetic product, quite often manufacturers answer consumers:
"Trust us. Our cosmetics meet every mandatory requirement and are absolutely safe when used …"
. We may not have to take their word for it, obviously.
Regulation and its adaptations may make us friendlier to this view.
Need an example? Some parts of the soon-to-be-enforced Regulation on cosmetic products: two articles and an Annex, only 4 pages out of the more than 150 of this document, which nevertheless move the goalposts when talking about the safety of a cosmetic product. They are also a concern for manufacturers, especially the small-and medium-sized ones (the main part of cosmetics manufacturers). They wonder how they will meet all the requirements within the given time.
Year after year, professionals are more and more worried, as more stringent regulation and constraints require added means, mainly human, and money. "Budgets of Regulation Departments are increasing every year, said COSMED VP, Jean-Marc GIROUX, when opening these 11th Conferences on March 24, to the point they even are higher than Research and Devlopment’s"! Another way to tell regulation may be a …
