New ISO standard to help evaluate antimicrobial protection of cosmetics

International Organization for Standardisation (ISO), a global voluntary international standards developer, has introduced a new standard to help analyse antimicrobial protection of cosmetics.

The new standard – ISO 11930:2012, Cosmetics – Microbiology – Evaluation of the antimicrobial protection of a cosmetic product – will help in testing the effectiveness of safeguarding users of cosmetics, reported cosmeticsdesign-europe.com.

The standard has been developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 217, Cosmetics.

Chemical preservation, inherent characteristics of the formulation, package design and the manufacturing process will help in standardisation in cosmetics protection.

ISO spokesperson said that the new standard will help ensure that products consumers use to cleanse and protect are thoroughly safe.

ISO 11930 project leader Andrée Cremieux said that the standard includes the best practices followed around the world, make cosmetics companies more efficient while lowering the trade restrictions and bringing confidence in consumers that the products are safe to use.

"Harmonized global guidance is necessary to ensure tests of cosmetics are carried out reliably around the world, and that results from different laboratories are comparable," added Cremieux.

The new standard outlines efficacy test and evaluation criteria as the key procedure to evaluate the overall preservation of a cosmetic product.

ISO said that the new standard builds upon ISO’s previously set 29621:2010 guidelines for the risk assessment and identification of microbiologically low-risk products.

The organisation also added that the new standard has to be used in accordance with its predecessor as it helps to determine products that have microbial contamination risk.