Product testing and consumer safety
The health and safety of our consumers is our paramount consideration. We will never compromise it for any reason.
We regularly assess products, formulations, raw materials, packaging and labelling to ensure the health and safety of our consumers, our employees and all other stakeholders - as an ethical and responsible supplier of consumer products, it is imperative for the Group that our products are safe - for use by our customers, for our employees and for the environment.
Product safety and risk assessments are conducted by appropriately qualified external toxicologists and, when considered necessary (and with the appropriate safeguards such as ethical committee approval), human safety testing is conducted. Human toxicological and safety aspects of raw materials are taken into consideration in the design process.
In the design of our products, by qualified and experienced chemists, microbiologists and packaging experts, we ensure that the materials which we use meet or exceed all applicable legal requirements (including EU and ASEAN cosmetics directives and other local regulatory requirements specified by bodies such as NAFDAC in Nigeria). We also conform to guidelines and good practice recommendations from various cosmetic industry trade associations such as the UK Cosmetics Toiletries and Perfumery Association (CTPA). In addition, the Group applies internal and self-imposed restrictions on the use of certain materials above and beyond legislative requirements as an additional measure to ensure product safety. The implementation of Project Lifecycle Management (PLM) software to manage product development from initial concept, through product launch in the marketplace to the end of its lifecycle, ensures that all legal, regulatory and environmental requirements are understood and met, as well as facilitating timely completion of projects and minimisation of cost.
The quality and safety of our products is further ensured through the PZ Cussons Group World Class Manufacturing system which ensures conformity to international standards on Good Manufacturing Practice (eg ISO 22716) and adherence to stringent product quality controls. We are also over time aiming to bring all operations across the Group in line with ISO 9001 in respect of Quality Management Systems.
PZ Cussons monitors the world regulatory environment to ensure that we take appropriate action at the correct time to maintain product and process compliance. We have assigned considerable resource to ensuring that we fully comply with the requirements of EU regulations such as REACh (the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) which seeks to provide an improved level of protection of human health and the environment through the responsible use of chemicals. At all European sites, we are also actively implementing the United Nations Globally Harmonised System (GHS), as enacted within the European Union as the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (of Chemicals) Regulations. In all other parts of the Group, we continue to monitor how the GHS will be implemented in local law and we are committed to full compliance.
In the highly unlikely event of a quality problem being identified externally to our supply chain, we have established material traceability and Group specified product recall procedures to ensure that any issue can be promptly and safely addressed.
We evaluate our suppliers to ensure that their production facilities, procedures and products are of a consistent and appropriate quality and meet our Group standards - Using auditors who are trained to recognised international standards, we conduct extensive audits of our 3rd party suppliers of products and raw materials to ensure that they meet PZ Cussons' strict product safety and quality requirements. We also confirm that suppliers have suitable emergency procedures in place to ensure business continuity; and
We do not conduct any animal testing or commission others to conduct any animal testing unless required by law - The Group does not conduct any animal testing or commission others to conduct any animal testing. We continue to support the development and acceptance of alternative methods which reduce or replace the use of animals in product safety evaluation and we work with our suppliers to ensure that our values on this subject are shared and, where feasible, that they work to similar standards.
