ISO/TR 19838 – Cosmetic Microbiology

It’s Friday and I often like to use the end of the week to discuss an area where standardization plays an important but rarely considered role.  Ever since Document Center started to have cosmetic companies for clients, I’ve been interested in the standards they use and a new one is available!  It’s ISO/TR 19838, “Microbiology – Cosmetics – Guidelines for the application of ISO standards on Cosmetic Microbiology.”  And since the concept of biological contamination of cosmetics has even made it into the “popular literature” (the kinds of magazines women like me enjoy reading in our spare time!), it’s good to know that standardization is here to support safe products for us.

Cosmetic manufacturers have two concerns when it comes to contamination.  The first, of course, is providing a clean product to the purchaser.  When I buy a cosmetic product at the store I want to know that it is free of any microorganisms that could affect my health or degrade the quality of the product.  But I also want to know that the product is resistant to negative affects that could be caused during normal use as well.

So I’m glad to see that this technical report has been issued.  ISO/TR 19838 gives manufacturers general guidelines to the ISO cosmetic microbiological standards available.  It helps them determine which to use depending on the objective (product development, in-market control, etc.) and the product they need to test.

It has lots of information on tests used to determine microbial content and antimicrobial preservation.   And it also shows users a variety of different approaches to testing that can be made, with examples using eye make-up remover, mascara, face cream, and shampoo!  To wrap up the main body of the standard, examples of test result interpretations are given.

Another great feature of the standard can be found in the Annexes.  These informative sections cover the various ISO cosmetic microbiology standards relate to one another, what aspect of microbial content of cosmetics each standard relates to, the evaluation of microbial content in flowchart form, and the interpretation of test results, also in flowchart format.  A 13-item bibliography completes this 22 page report.

Of course, if you’re in the cosmetics industry, you’ll want a copy of this new Technical Report.  You can search for and order standards at the Document Center Inc. webstore www.document-center.com, an authorized outlet for ISO publications.  And for your convenience, here’s a direct link to the order page for ISO/TR 19838.

Or you may want to get in touch with us directly.  Our staff can be reached by phone (650-591-7600) or email (info@document-center.com).  We’ve been selling ISO standards since the 1980’s.  Make us your Standards Experts!

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Claudia Bach

Claudia Bach is the President of Document Center Inc. and a world-wide recognized expert on Standards and Standards Distribution. You can connect with her on Google+

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