Shelf life is an important consideration for home and personal care products. While the home care products may not function as intended beyond their shelf life, they may also exhibit toxic effects on human exposure. In case of personal care products, shelf life plays an even important role as using a product after shelf life may lead to skin reactions, infections and more. The shelf life studies also protect manufacturers from any legal claims and consumer litigations, and help in overcoming any problem of product recalls and associated economic losses.

Setting shelf life studies can often be challenging due to consideration of multiple factors as temperature fluctuations, microbial growth, and exposure to moisture, sensory deterioration and many others. It is therefore important to design shelf life studies with preciseness and after consideration of multiple factors. The shelf life studies are undertaken at various stages including R&D, product launch, any change in ingredients, or as part of routine Quality Control procedures. The testing for shelf life also becomes essential in case of any change in suppliers, manufacturing process, packaging material or overall package design. The regulations mandate conducting shelf life studies in case the product lifespan is challenged.

AT VIMTA, we help companies design shelf life studies based on specific requirements. Our service design consists of:

• Real Time Studies for products with short shelf life
• Accelerated Studies for products with longer shelf life
• Tests – Chemical, Microbiological, Physical and Sensory

We are equipped with a large fleet of validated temperature and humidity controlled chambers to design and conduct product specific, customized, shelf life studies.