S&M as supplier of preservatives to the detergent industry is affected by the new requirements on product labelling. Specifically labelling is introduced to inform consumers about preservation agents that are present in detergents.

In Annex VII „Labelling and Ingredient Data Sheet“ under A. „Labelling for contents“ of the regulation the following is seen:

„If added, preservation agents shall be listed, irrespective of their concentration, using where possible the common nomenclature established under Article 8 of Council Directive 76/768/EEC ... relating to cosmetic products. ... For detergents intended to be used in the industrial sector, and not made available for members of the general public, the above mentioned requirements do not have to be fulfilled if the equivalent information is provided by means of technical data sheets, safety data sheets, or in similar appropriate manner.“

This means in practice that from 8 October 2005 on, preservative actives have to be labelled on the packaging of detergents. It is suggested to use INCI-names for this.

Not all of the preservative actives used for the preservation of detergents are allowed in Europe for cosmetic products. Therefore not for all preservative actives used in our Parmetol- and Grotan-products INCI-names are existing. The regulation does not say anything about what alternative nomenclature should be used instead. S&M will suggest to its customers to label with the EINECS-name, when INCI-names are not existing. We have prepared labelling-datasheets for each Parmetol- and Grotan-product used in detergents. We will make these data sheets available to you upon request.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Schülke & Mayr GmbH
Special Additives International
Silke Wüstermann
Product Manager

Tel.: +49-40-521 00 215 ; Fax: +49-40-521 00 244, e-mail: silke.wuestermann@schulke-mayr.com