Testing of sunscreen to verify compliance with applicable standards

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), a directorate of the department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), was created in January 2018 to deliver consumer protection and to support business confidence, productivity, and growth. We regulate a wide range of products with a focus on their safety and integrity. We work with local, national, and international regulators, with consumer representatives and with businesses to deliver effective protections and to support compliance. Our mission is to be a trusted product regulator for the UK. This means protecting people and places, enabling business to thrive and empowering consumers to make good choices. We will be a leader of good regulatory practice and a champion of local regulation. OPSS is: • the national regulator for all consumer products, except for vehicles, medicines, and food. • the national regulator for legal metrology, ensuring weighing and measuring instruments are accurate and reliable. Suppliers are strongly encouraged to read the text at the following link to gain a full understanding of the role of the enforcement services with Government: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-regulation-enforcement-services OPSS is responsible to ensuring that all consumer products in the market are safe to use for all. The sunscreen 2022 project aims to identify whether a range of sunscreen products sold at a national lev-el are conforming to the Retained EU Regulation of the Cosmetic Products Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 and the Cosmetic Enforcement regulations 2013. The project aims to verify whether manu-facturers accurately state the level of the claimed determination of full sunscreen protection/ level of protection, determine the effectiveness of the products, and to confirm the product formulation. To identify the level of protection offered through SPF and UVA testing according to the standard methods set by cosmetics industry as listed below, and to screen for harmful substances including benzene.

i. Full SPF: EN ISO 24444:2019, full ISO with target of SPF 30 and < 50. ii. UVA in vitro: ISO 24443:2021: Determination of sunscreen UVA photoprotection in vitro. iii. Determination of UV Filters EN 16344:2013; Analytical methods EN 17156:2018. iv. Benzene testing.

These tests would be required to be carried out only by test labs accredited to General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories; EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 or EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017.

This supplier engagement event will provide more information about this opportunity and what we expect to see from suppliers. It will also serve as an opportunity for suppliers to gain a better understanding of the new direction OPSS will be taking with regards to future testing contracts.

Additional information: This engagement day will be via MS Teams, on 5th July 2022 at 11:30am-12:30pm. To register for an invite, please contact Sarah Odofin at [email protected]