Over past few years I have been contacted by many brands that want to go into the Chinese market but are concerned that animal testing on their product is required prior to registration.
It is a difficult decision for some brands. On one side you have the lucrative market of China versus the ethical stance on animal testing.
I have seen many brands lose the little bunny rabbit off their packaging without saying a word.
Being in the industry for many years, I find cruelty free / animal testing free claims on brands a bit misleading as the product they sell may have never been tested on animals but many of the ingredients they choose to use have been at some point in time.
And I’m not talking about the synthetics that go into these brands but the natural ingredients such as essential oils and carrier/vegetable oils. If you have ever seen a material safety data sheet or Safety Data sheet, there is a section in these documents called toxicological information where it states an LD50 result for the raw material. LD50 stands for lethal dose that killed 50% of the test population.
Even water has a LD50 result of 6 litres. That just goes to show that too much of anything can be bad for you.
The point I’m trying to make is that if we are going to be real and transparent about animal testing then letting the consumer know the product is not tested on animals is great, but if any of the ingredients have LD50 results they should be highlighted indicating animal testing has been performed sometime in the life of that ingredient.
Just because a label says ‘not tested on animals’, it doesn’t mean that’s always the case.
