UFI, the brake of the shaving industry in E.U. ?

[gstriftos]

A whlie ago has come to my knowledge a regulation that will be imposed in all E.U. members starting as of 01st January 2021.

It is the obligation of manugacturers (or importers if items come outside of EU) to add UFI (Unique formula identifier) in every chemical mixture (and yes soaps, creams, lotions, balms are chemical mixtures) on products launched after 01st January 2021.

What is the UFI;

The unique formula identifier, known by its acronym UFI, is a code that will be required on the label of your products that contain a hazardous mixture.
In addition to the UFI, you are also required to provide other information on your mixture and associated products for poison centres to use, such as composition, trade name, colour, packaging, product category and toxicological information. The UFI aims to establish an unambiguous link between the information you provide with the product you place on the market.

https://poisoncentres.echa.europa.eu/documents/22284544/22295820/ufi_what_it_means_en.pdf/576a9a82-c352-b5b3-df73-e763da37e559

For those who are not interested in reading the info provided by the links and in short:

Every soap, cream, balm, lotion (software in our little shaving world) that will be launched after 01/01 must be carry this in order to be legally sold.
This is no easy task even for medium sized companies, let alone artisans.
MSDS and ingredient lists for each component are needed, the first being easy to source from a supplier but the second (and especially in essences/parfumes it considered trade secret) comes out very hard.

If you dig a little deeper you will see that UFI will become mandatory even for every single product (yes even the ones on the market as of 01/01) at 2024.


So how do you see the above?
Is the golden era of artisans bygone in EU?
Do you think it is an appropriate measure, leaving on the market only those manufacturers/artisans who are seriously comminted to establish a long term production line?
Or will it expand ''black market'' (artisans promoting localy and off radar - as privates- their stuff to skip these rules) ?

 

[macintoshBR]

Great news, for me. As a consumer I love to have full transparency on what I’m buying and using. Also, it’s great to have a certified body of experts confirming that what my family and I buy and use is regarded as safe.

PS: I don’t use kitchen or garage-made soaps or creams. Only EU-made products from long-standing companies.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Yet another example of big industry elbowing out the smaller producers. The same happened with the Tobacco Products Directive, whereby the big tobacco companies with fewer products, were significantly less affected than the smaller, more diverse producers. Big companies get smaller bills and less red tape than little companies do.

Hopefully the newly liberated UK won't be tied up in this, aside from UK producers having to comply when selling into the EU.

 

[EclipseRedRing]

Great news, for me. As a consumer I love to have full transparency on what I’m buying and using. Also, it’s great to have a certified body of experts confirming that what my family and I buy and use is regarded as safe.

PS: I don’t use kitchen or garage-made soaps or creams. Only EU-made products from long-standing companies.

I respectfully disagree. I too use only long established products and have zero interest in artisan products; as such the implementation of such new rules will have no effect on my purchasing. However, simply because I do not purchase their products does not mean I wish to see small companies hamstrung by bureaucracy and potentially forced out of business as a result of regulations regarding products which I choose not to purchase. I can already decide to choose against purchasing products which do not carry such labels, while others can and do choose to purchase them; that choice is about to be removed from us both.

 

[gstriftos]

Great news, for me. As a consumer I love to have full transparency on what I’m buying and using. Also, it’s great to have a certified body of experts confirming that what my family and I buy and use is regarded as safe.

UFI code ''translation'' is not avaialble to the public but only to those who have access to the poison center info of each counrty (doctors, physicians, pharmacists, e.t.c.).
It is not a label of quality. No one is certifing anything.
Just a measure for the health care system in each country to have unified data & info so as to follow suitable therapy in case someone gets poisoned.

 

[Cal]

It is the obligation of manufacturers (or importers if items come outside of EU) to add UFI (Unique formula identifier) in every chemical mixture (and yes soaps, creams, lotions, balms are chemical mixtures) on products launched after 01st January 2021.

Are you sure about that, George?

Wikipedia (definitely not the most reliable source, but often quite good) says:

The unique formula identifier (UFI) is a code printed on products with hazardous mixtures in the European Economic Area (EEA), meant to help calls to poison control centers to determine the contents.

So surely it only applies to stuff you would (for example) keep out of the reach of children... and which will already show a GHS symbol on the label.

 

[BigJ]

Are you sure about that, George?

Wikipedia (definitely not the most reliable source, but often quite good) says:

So surely it only applies to stuff you would (for example) keep out of the reach of children... and which will already show a GHS symbol on the label.
View attachment 1197882

This would be a more sensible approach IMO!

 

[McBlade]

Changing the information on a label doesn't sound particularly onerous.

 

[gstriftos]

Are you sure about that, George?

Wikipedia (definitely not the most reliable source, but often quite good) says:

So surely it only applies to stuff you would (for example) keep out of the reach of children... and which will already show a GHS symbol on the label.
View attachment 1197882

99.99% sure..
Latest update I got in question about e-liquids without nicotine: If its a chemical mixture is requires a UFI.
There is an ongoing progress (and pressure) to alter it on how you present it but I don't know what the outcome will be.


Edit: In how many asl's do you see flamable GHS symbol? Shouldn't there be one?

 

[NPK]

I have an entire case of Arko, which will last many many years. Get enough of what you want now, this is pretty easy to navigate.

 

[koenfucius]

I had a quick look at the rules, and it seems that there are specific rules on cosmetics, which take precedence
(Though I admit not being a specialist on GHS or cosmetics rules)

 

[Cal]

99.99% sure..
Latest update I got in question about e-liquids without nicotine: If its a chemical mixture is requires a UFI.
There is an ongoing progress (and pressure) to alter it on how you present it but I don't know what the outcome will be.

I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one, George.

From what I've read (further to reading your OP), it only looks like hazardous chemical mixtures to me.

A Unique Formula Identifier (i.e. for communicating to a Poison Control Center) for (say) a bar of soap just seems crazy...
of course, we're living in crazy times.

 

[gstriftos]

I had a quick look at the rules, and it seems that there are specific rules on cosmetics, which take precedence
(Though I admit not being a specialist on GHS or cosmetics rules)

Yes it has to do with in which category of CLP a cosmetic product falls into (thus I said about the ongoing progress in a previous comment).

 

[gstriftos]

A Unique Formula Identifier (i.e. for communicating to a Poison Control Center) for (say) a bar of soap just seems crazy...
of course, we're living in crazy times.

Super crazy if you ask me. Cosmetics in general have SUE so I too don't undestand the UFI notification.

 

[Furex]

It's not clear enough what this actually entails in practice, so it's hard to have a reasoned or informed opinion on it yet.

A lot of products we routinely use are safe for external use, but there is no doubt that they can have dire effects on health, if ingested.

One aspect that gives me thought is, if this is meant to create a centralized, connected database of product formulations, it could place certain data at risk. But I'm not positive what data exactly goes in, so...

 

[engblom]

Me and my wife did plan to become soap artisans but already with current laws it was too much bureaucracy. We made 100% natural soaps without any artificial ingredients. Our most liked product was pure liquid olive oil soap with nothing else than water, olive oil, KOH and lavender essential oil. I also made some good shaving soaps with all natural ingredients and still I have not found any as good commercial product. But nobody will get those products anymore because of EU.