At the CFIC (Carrefour des fournisseurs de l'industrie cosmétique) trade fair for suppliers to the cosmetics industry, to be held in Orléans on December 3 and 4, 2024, the CFIC Awards will be presented to the winners.
In the "Next-generation solutions and services" category, Helioscience was rewarded for its next-generation ecotoxicity tests on corals, with a view to standardization.
The company proposes an innovative, coral-friendly method to enable manufacturers to assess the toxicity of their formulas or cosmetic ingredients on tropical reef-building corals, using a methodology optimized to be more robust and respectful of the corals used for the experiments.
"To make the test more robust, we measure two parameters simultaneously: bleaching and inhibition of coral growth, and assess both short-term and longer-term toxicity. We have carefully selected the most sensitive species in order to limit the number of corals used in the experiments.explains Helioscience. Before each test, we make sure that the cuttings are acclimatized and healed to avoid any stress to the coral. We have developed a methodology with parameters sensitive enough to make the test non-lethal. A procedure has also been established to reuse the cuttings for other future tests."
As a result, corals are no longer killed after the experiments, as in conventional ecotoxicity tests. These tests have been optimized for suncare formulas. In the absence of a standardized test, Helioscience wishes to propose this new methodology as a starting point for the development of a standardized test method dedicated to assessing the impact of sunscreen formulas on corals, to enable brands to make reliable and transparent claims for consumers.
Helioscience will welcome visitors on stand C72.
