Every day millions of men and women use some form of cosmetic product. Whether its sunblock, moisturizer, or makeup, cosmetics are part of most people’s daily routines. Cosmetics come into direct contact with our bodies, so it’s imperative that their cleanliness is confirmed with adequate testing. If not, contaminated cosmetics can be quite harmful to consumers.
There a few different ways cosmetics can become contaminated, including but not limited to: unsanitary manufacturing conditions, contaminated ingredients and raw materials, improper packaging, poor storage, and even consumers touching the products post-sale. Many cosmetic products use water as an ingredient, and water-based products are highly susceptible to microbial contamination. We are constantly told not to share our makeup or cosmetic products due to potential microbial cross-contamination. The testing of preservative efficacy by a microbiology laboratory will help minimize this type of cross-contamination.
If consumers use contaminated cosmetics, several health problems can occur. These include flaky, itchy, red skin, the appearance of rash or pimples, infections, pain, blindness, and even dangerous or life-threatening diseases like sepsis. Most of the 313 cosmetic and personal care products recalled from 2002 to 2016 had problems with bacterial contamination, according to data obtained from the Food and Drug Administration. Though it is rare to contract a life-threatening disease from a contaminated cosmetic, it’s not impossible, which is what makes the testing that much more important.
Microbiology testing labs help cosmetic manufacturers confirm the microbial cleanliness of their products and processes and the preservative efficacy and stability of their formulations.
Some of the ways in which microbiology labs test for contamination in cosmetic products are:
- Determining the microbial bioburden of a drug product or drug substance by classic culture methods or by rapid microbial methodology. Manufacturers should pay special attention to storage conditions, shelf life, targeted patient population, and route of administration.
- Performing USP 62 Non-Sterile Product Tests for
Specified Microorganisms which determines how many and what type of microbes
are in a test sample.
- Examples:
- P. aeruginosa: typically infects the pulmonary system, urinary tract, burns, and wounds.
- E. coli: often causes outbreaks of food poisoning.
- Staphylococcus aureus: causes toxic shock syndrome, food poisoning and skin infections MRSA
- Salmonella: typically invades only the GI tract and causes food poisoning but can also be invasive and cause typhoid and paratyphoid fever.
- Candida albicans: is the causative agent of thrush.
- Clostridia: some of the most toxic microbes that can cause botulism and tetanus.
- Examples:
- Administering the USP 51 Antimicrobial Preservative Efficacy test to ensure that the antimicrobial activity of the preservatives in the product is still effective.
- Providing protocols, swabs, vials, and consultation to make sure there is no microbial contamination or drug or cleaning product residue on the production surfaces of manufacturing facilities.
Because we use cosmetics every day, manufacturers must perform microbial testing before distributing their products to the marketplace to ensure consumers are safe. Consumers need to take precautions since our own bodies can contaminate a product, but microbiology testing labs can confirm that preservative levels are adequate in cosmetics to prevent consumer contamination.