Organic Products Found to Contain Parabens

Premium Beauty News, a magazine for cosmetic industry insiders, has revealed that The French Agency for the Medical Safety of Health Products (AFSSAPS) and the General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumers and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) have published the results of a joint marketing survey, looking into the ‘preservative-free’ claims of ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ brands.

The survey looked at 30 cosmetic products, with 28 of these being certified organic (to standards such as Ecocert, BDIH, ICEA-AIAB and Visagro) and 6 being labelled as a ‘natural’ and/or ‘organic’ product. 12 claimed to be free from preservatives and 16 claimed to be paraben and/or phenoxyethanol free. 

The microbial quality was mostly deemed to be satisfactory, although one product was found to contain undesirable bacteria and has been withdrawn from the market. Perhaps more surprisingly 6 of the products that claimed to be free from parabens and phenoxyethanol contained traces of methylparaben ranging from 0.01 to 0.04 percent, suggesting that traces of parabens may have been present in the raw materials used by the companies.

The DGCCRF has warned manufacturers that it could be considered misleading to consumers to claim that a product is free from a particular preservative when traces of that preservative or other antimicrobial ingredients are present.