On 6 January, we learned of the ban on the manufacture, packaging, distribution and marketing of the hair and body foaming gel from the Bébé range of the Cattier laboratory, justified by the Afssaps (French Agency for Health and Beauty);health product safety comfort level) by the absence of a"specific end-product assessment for children under three years of age" in the product file. Today's response from the brand, which insists that this decision is administrative, while the product, sold since 2005, had so far been the subject of no problem, nor any claim of any kind.
8 January 2009 When that decision was announced, that this ban was the first sign of a new regulatory rigour, in the controversial context surrounding cosmetic products for babies today.
In its press release, Cattier points out that all the necessary skin and eye tolerance tests have always been carried out on its products,"with particular vigilance for all products intended for children under three years of age". Until now, she explains,"it was accepted that tests on adults with sensitive skin were equivalent by extrapolation to tests performed on a panel of children under three years of age. Protocol which is no longer sufficient today. "It is for this sole reason" continues the press release,"that the Afssaps has asked us to temporarily suspend the sale of this product until the file is completed with the missing test which has since been initiated".
Cattier hopes to have the product back on the market within a few months, once all administrative procedures have been validated.
