Abstract
Doubts surrounding the potential adverse effects of antimicrobial preservatives have modified the demand of consumers, who increasingly insist on the production of low-level and even preservative-free cosmetics. Protection of the product against microbial contamination is therefore focused on the packaging. This has prompted the emergence of a highly diverse array of so-called “protective”, “overprotective”, and “barrier” packaging. However, these designations are not normalized and the choice of the right packaging adapted to each cosmetic product is still essentially empirical, hazardous, and time consuming. The Cosmetic Valleys cluster has launched a commission to define a complete and experimentally-validated method to classify the level of protection of cosmetic packaging against microbial contamination. As reported herein, this required the development a specific bacteriostatic medium that can be used for 7 days and an in vitro procedure that reproduces in-use contamination and consumer practices. Based on tests performed on over 800 packages of different origin and performance characteristics, we propose a classification, divided into six grades, to differentiate the protective efficiency of cosmetic packaging. This work can be considered as a first step towards a regulatory text.
Highlights
Demonstration of the health and environmental risks associated with the presence of preservatives in personalcare products and cosmetics has prompted the emergence of low-level and even preservative-free products (Halla et al 2018)
As certain active cosmetic ingredients have antimicrobial activity, even in the absence of added preservatives (Papageorgiou et al 2010; Herman et al 2013), the formula can provide a certain amount of protection against microbial contamination and the pack should be adapted to this situation to avoid over-quality costs
Definition of the target and regulatory context A “Guideline for the evaluation of physical antimicrobial protection provided by packaging” was developed for the comparison of the performance of commercially available cosmetic packaging, taking into account the physical properties of the potential final formulation and, independently, its composition
Summary
Demonstration of the health and environmental risks associated with the presence of preservatives in personalcare products and cosmetics has prompted the emergence of low-level and even preservative-free products (Halla et al 2018). As the packaging is an intrinsic element of low-level and preservative-free cosmetic products, it is essential to adapt its performance to the protection of the formulation to insure sanitary safety. As certain active cosmetic ingredients have antimicrobial activity, even in the absence of added preservatives (Papageorgiou et al 2010; Herman et al 2013), the formula can provide a certain amount of protection against microbial contamination and the pack should be adapted to this situation to avoid over-quality costs. The packaging and formulation are generally produced by different partners and, in the absence of regulatory texts and even technical tools that make it possible to define a clear hierarchy from low to overprotective and barrier packaging, selecting the correct association is essentially empirical and potentially hazardous
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