Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Advanced Questions Glydant™ Plus™ Liquid / free formaldehyde

  • Glydant™ Plus™ Liquid / free formaldehyde

    Posted by David on June 19, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    EU regulation:

    Finished products containing DMDMH must be labeled with the
    warning “contains formaldehyde” if the (free) formaldehyde concentration
    exceeds 0.05%.
    How do I know this value is not exceeded in my formulation?
    David replied 9 years, 3 months ago 7 Members · 12 Replies
  • 12 Replies
  • Bill_Toge

    Member
    June 19, 2015 at 7:00 pm

    firstly, “contains formaldehyde” is only required on products containing formaldehyde itself, i.e. not formaldehyde donors, and even then it’s only required if it’s included for non-preservative purposes; see Annex III/13

    Annex V/5, which covers its use as a preservative, does not specify any labelling requirement, and nor do any of the entries for formaldehyde donors in Annex V

    secondly, any product containing DMDM hydantoin that’s not formulated at an extremely acidic or alkaline pH, or stored at temperatures over about 50°C, will have a negligible concentration of free formaldehyde; it only releases formaldehyde when microorganisms try to digest it

  • David

    Member
    June 19, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    Thanks Bill_Toge, but regarding Annex V - I think you are wrong:

    Annex V says (at the bottom):
    All finished products containing formaldehyde or substances in this Annex and which release formaldehyde must be labelled with the warning ‘contains formaldehyde’ where the concentration of formaldehyde in the finished product
    exceeds 0,05 %
    secondly I agree - however a negligible concentration is unfortunately not defined and doesn’t mean < 0,05% !
  • Bill_Toge

    Member
    June 19, 2015 at 9:01 pm

    in which case I’d suggest you refer this matter to your safety assessor and see what their view is, since they’ll ultimately be the ones who sign your product(s) off as safe and determine whether or not they go to market in their current state

    for what it’s worth, none of the safety assessors I’ve dealt with have ever recommended adding this warning, not even the ones working to corporate policies and limits which went went well over and above the ones prescribed by the regulations

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    July 14, 2015 at 5:33 am

    In the first instance I would be doing an analysis on “free” formaldehyde in your formulation using the colourimetric acetyl acetone method.( Refer Japanese Law 112)  You will need a Visible spectrophotometer for this analysis or send the sample out to a registered laboratory to do the work. A level of 0.05% is 500 ppm and this method will readily detect down to 1 ppm .

  • ytzme

    Member
    July 16, 2015 at 11:35 am

    You may all be correct with your answers, but the bottom line is that “formaldehyde donors” like Paraben” are not liked by the general public. I would try and stop using them. I don’t think it is worth trying to fight it anymore. There really are quite a few products out there, that preserve well, at least until the next bombshell hits us!!!

  • belassi

    Member
    July 16, 2015 at 3:20 pm

    Parabens is not a formaldehyde donor.

  • OldPerry

    Member
    July 16, 2015 at 5:44 pm

    I’m not sure the general public knows what parabens are.  There is a small segment of the population who cares and lots of cosmetic marketers seem to but whenever I’ve done an informal poll of people, and I ask what they think of parabens, almost no one knows what they are.



    Do consumers think about parabens in cosmetics?

  • Bobzchemist

    Member
    July 16, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    Also, the small segment  of the population who do care about parabens tend to be very heavily concentrated in the segment of people who want “all-natural” products. 

    So, if you’re not marketing a “natural” or an “all-natural” product, and if your marketing department doesn’t care about having a “paraben-free” claim, there’s really no reason not to use parabens. All of the scientific evidence behind the paraben scare has been pretty thoroughly debunked/discredited.
  • David

    Member
    July 16, 2015 at 11:56 pm

    exactly Bobzchemist&  Perry it is not a natural product - which brings me back to the actual question - do I need a warning? one says most safety assessors don’t care another says I should measure… maybe not so easy to answer - that is why I put it under “advanced” -anyway thank you for the input

  • MarkBroussard

    Member
    July 17, 2015 at 1:19 am

    @David:

    The language in the regulation is not unambiguous.  You need to measure and if your product contains higher than the minimum concentration of free formaldehyde, then you need to put the warning.
  • ytzme

    Member
    July 17, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    sorry Belassi, my english is from UK. What i was saying is that “formaldehyde donors” ,and preservative like parabens are not liked by the general public. I do hope that all the people here know that parabens are not formaldehyde donors. Sorry if what i wrote gave anyone else the idea that i was  suggesting that. best regards edwardgaunt@gmail.com

  • David

    Member
    July 21, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    thanks MarkBroussard, I believe so too…

Log in to reply.

Chemists Corner