ISO, the International Organization for Standardisation, has published a new standard to evaluate the antimicrobial protection of cosmetics.

According to ISO, there are several ways to protect cosmetics:

– chemical preservation,
– inherent characteristics of the formulation,
– package design,
– manufacturing process.

The new standard, ISO 11930:2012, Cosmetics – Microbiology – Evaluation of the antimicrobial protection of a cosmetic product, should help test their effectiveness in safeguarding consumers.

Staphylococcus aureus are among the microbial organisms whose presence in cosmetic products must be avoided

“The use of cosmetics is as global as the industry,” says Andrée Cremieux. Project Leader of ISO 11930. “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.”

The standard ISO 11930 complement the standard ISO 29621:2010, Guidelines for the risk assessment and identification of microbiologically low-risk products, which helps determine which products have a risk of microbial contamination.