Alternatives to animal testing developing, focus on cruelty-free may be holding back

Animal testing was the 20th-century answer to product safety issues, and as the 21st-century cosmetics industry turns away from it some replacements are still up in the air.

A research team out of the UK, José Silva et al., recently published a review in Cosmetics of alternatives to animal testing, along with the history of animal testing and the context for the move away from it.

According to José Silva et al., animal testing in consumer packaged goods was largely initiated by a 1936 report in the US covering injury and death caused by food and drug products. To promote safety for consumers, the US legally required animal testing, which also set off opposition from the animal rights movement.

In 2009 the EU started to phase out animal testing in cosmetics, and since then José Silva et al. said, in cosmetics, the term “New Approach Methodology”​ or NAM has described alternatives to animal testing in assessing chemical hazards and risk assessment.

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