Safe Pet Cosmetics®

Safe Pet Cosmetics® was developed in collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Medicine of the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna to increase the safety of pet cosmetics. Despite the increasing importance of pet care products, unlike human products, there is no specific legislation regulating pet products.

Human products are subject to a high level of controls and monitoring to ensure consumer protection. For example, many ingredients are banned or regulated (dyes, preservatives, UV filters). Cosmetic products for pet use are currently largely unregulated.

Sara Palombella, Pharma and Cosmetics Product Leader at Bureau Veritas, a leading testing, inspection and certification company says, “To date, there is no specific legislation regulating cosmetics for pets. Therefore, we generally refer to consumer protection criteria such as the EU directive on the free sale of products, the current regulations on chemicals (labelling) and those on criticality of cosmetics, a highly regulated category. This creates a paradox: on the one hand, cosmetics for pets are classified as chemical products, comparable to car detergent, but on the other hand, companies operating in this sector use the same reference on the label of cosmetics for humans to demonstrate the high quality of their products, even if this is not the case, causing great confusion among consumers.”

To address this contradiction in the ever-growing pet market, Bureau Veritas Italia, currently the only recognized and authorized body to issue this certification, has drafted the Safe Pet Cosmetics® guidelines.

Safe Pet Cosmetics® aims to convince companies to ensure the safety of pet care products, comparable to the safety of human care products, to protect the health of pets. The same requirements in the specifications for cosmetics that apply to human use must also be met for pet use.

The brand we offer, Iv San Bernard, is the first European company to produce cosmetic products for pets with the Safe Pet Cosmetics® certification: