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Hydrosol shelf life for selling
Hi,
I would like to resell lavender hydrosol/floral water and bottle it in smaller packaging. I know there are floral waters out there that are not preserved, yet they are resold on the market. How long would it last in that case, and would you need any testing on it (considering it already has tests taken by the supplier).
Thank you!
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5 Replies
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I wouldn’t recommend selling unpreserved products. It is unsafe. You would be legally liable for any harm caused to consumers.
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That’s why we were actually asking. We do want to make sure we comply with every legal requirement, as well as make the products safe for customers. That’s why we were curious as to why other floral waters on the market do not mention any preservatives on the label.
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There are a couple of possible explanations.
1. They are uninformed and do not realize they need preservatives in order to sell safe products. (They probably don’t even test their products).
2. They use preservatives but just don’t put them on the label.
If you’re a small company, cheating on your labeling is not likely to be found out unless someone reports you. Even then the FDA has limited resources & can’t get to everyone. It’s like cheating on your taxes. It’s illegal but people do it & get away with it.
It’s a matter of personal ethics and risk. Some people are willing to take high risks and other people want to push their marketing story no matter what the truth is.
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Another possibility is that they are using an unusually high or low pH to “self-preserve” their products.
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We purchase a hydrosol in bulk (5L) and repackage into 100 mL. The supplier assures us that preserving is not required. To-date no issues with our Challenge Test Reports on these products, but one report has just come in with the following results:
The sample showed a log reduction of >5 and no increase from the 14 days count against Staphylococcus aureus at 28 days.
Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed a log reduction of >1 and >2 and no increase from the 14 days count at 28 days.
One(1) type of yeast and one(1) type of mould showed a log reduction of 0.04 and
-0.31 respectively which are increase from the initial count at 14 days at 28 days.The product did not meet the criteria specified under product category 2 under USP 51 Antimicrobial Effectiveness Testing due to the increase from the initial count at 14 days for yeast and mould.
We have contacted the bulk supplier, and are waiting for their response.
This raises the question then, for us to be more certain, what would be an appropriate preservative for this type of product for us to add when we repackage in our production facility?
Thanks
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