Microbiology
Services
Sagescript
Institute offers
microbiology testing of cosmetics and toiletries. Tests available are
the two most important assays:
Aerobic
plate count (APC) - enumeration of bacteria present in a sample
Fungal/yeast count (F/YC) - enumeration of fungi (mold) or
yeast present in a sample.
Our pricing is shown in the table below and has just increased in 2010
for the first time.
|
No of Samples
|
APC
|
Fungal/Yeast
|
Both Together
|
| 1-2 |
$19 |
$19 |
$31 |
| 3-4 |
$18 |
$18 |
$28 |
| 5+ |
$16 |
$16 |
$26 |
Testing your cosmetics in
this way is
one step in assuring you that you have a safe product to
sell. A 1-2 ounce sample of your product is all that is needed. The
procedure will follow the guidelines of the US Food & Drug
Administration (FDA) for microbiological methods for cosmetics. Testing
takes between 1-2 weeks.
Additional services are available on a consultation basis.
These might include gram stain, challenge testing, Mean
Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). Pricing for these will vary depending
upon details.
This link describes a
hospital case where
patients were infected because of a nurse using a contaminated hand
lotion:
See my blog for more information on contaminated products. Feel free to
share with me any incidents you are aware of.
http://sagescript.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-use-preservative.html
http://sagescript.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-bacteria-found.html
These tests can also be
applied to other
products such as foods and herbs.
Please contact me for more
information if
you are interested. I will forward a request form to you. Payment can
be made by check or paypal. I will need about an ounce of your product
for testing. Mail
Here is what the FDA
guidelines say about
bacteria in cosmetic products:
"Cosmetic
products are not expected to be aseptic; however, they must be
completely free of high-virulence microbial pathogens, and the total
number of aerobic microorganisms per gram must be low. Since there are
no widely acceptable standards for numbers, temporary guidelines are
used instead. For eye-area products, counts should not be greater than
500 colony forming units (CFU)/g; for non-eye-area products, counts
should not be greater than 1000 CFU/g. The presence of pathogens would
be particularly important in evaluating as unacceptable a cosmetic with
a marginally acceptable count, e.g., 400 CFU/g for an eye-area product.
Pathogens or opportunistic pathogens whose incidence would be of
particular concern, especially in eye-area cosmetic products, include
S. aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, P. aeruginosa and other species, and
Klebsiella pneumoniae. Some microbes normally regarded as nonpathogenic
may be opportunistically pathogenic, e.g., in wounds."
The EU recommendations are similar.
Payment can be made by
check or Paypal.
"What
is essential is invisible to the eye..."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, in The Little Prince
