Our facilities and labs
A safety assessment is a conclusion drawn from data. We produce that data ourselves, which is why we can stand behind the conclusion.
Oxford Biosciences runs three in-house laboratories under a Head of Laboratory Sciences. They sit alongside the assessment team rather than at the far end of a supply chain, so test data goes straight from the bench to the person writing the report, with no loss of context about how it was generated. The analytical work is not contracted out.
What the laboratories cover
The work spans the disciplines a Cosmetic Product Safety Report and a market submission actually call on:
- Microbiology. Preservative efficacy (challenge) testing to ISO 11930 and microbiological quality to ISO 17516, the evidence that a product stays safe in use.
- Stability and compatibility. Real-time and accelerated stability, and pack compatibility, establishing shelf life and the period after opening.
- Analytical chemistry. Heavy metals by ICP-MS, antioxidant capacity by DPPH assay, and ingredient and contaminant analysis by GC-MS, including essential-oil profiling.
- Photoprotection. SPF and UVA characterisation under the relevant ISO standards for sun-protection claims.
- Environmental. The data needed for the environmental and aquatic considerations now appearing in several markets' requirements.
Two locations, one standard
The firm operates from the Oxford Science Park in the United Kingdom and from a registered office in County Cork, Republic of Ireland. The two cover our roles as UK and EU Responsible Person respectively, and they run under a single quality management system aligned to ISO 22716 Good Manufacturing Practice, so a brand is held to one standard regardless of which market it enters first.