The report was submitted to Infarmed, the Food and Economic Safety Authority (ASAE), and the Directorate-General for Consumer Affairs. According to this source, the law is not being followed due to the new packaging of the “Hair Booster” hair care line (Protein, Vitamin C, and Amino Acid) by Fructis, a brand of Garnier, marketed by L’Oréal.

The product line in question has a shape, color, and volume that, according to DECO, “can be easily mistaken for fruit pouches intended for children,” which they can open and ingest: “The amount of hair product in the packaging allows for multiple uses. Thus, after the first use, the spout of the package does not require much force to open, making it more accessible to children.”

According to national and European legislation, it is prohibited to manufacture, import, export, or market products known as ‘dangerous imitations,’ including cosmetics that can be mistaken for food. Therefore, non-food products that can mislead consumers by their appearance, packaging, labeling, or color are prohibited.

Although the warnings “Keep out of reach of young children without supervision” and “Do not ingest” were indicated, these alerts were considered “insufficient” due to the similarity of the packaging to a fruit pouch.

DECO stated that although it is increasingly common to find this type of packaging for refills, they usually have shapes and capacities different from food product packaging.

L’Oréal’s Position

In response to DECO, L’Oréal mentioned that flexible pouch packaging is becoming more common in the cosmetic industry due to environmental concerns, and it is highly likely that this format will expand to other product categories.

The company also argued that the packaging makes no reference to food and requires “a certain amount of force” to open, unlike food pouches.

References

DECO PROteste – New Fructis packaging can be mistaken for children’s food.