What Are Product Safety Standards?

by | May 27, 2023 | Authorised Representative, Product Safety

What Are Product Safety Standards?

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) state that standards are “documented agreements containing technical specifications, requirements or other criteria to be used as rules or definitions of characteristics to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose.”

In the context of the CE mark, they are essentially technical documents that tell us how to comply with a product directive and can offer assurances that a product is not likely to cause death or injury.

Independently of ISO and IEC (although there is much common ground) EU has its own safety standards for products that will be on sale within its member states. These EN standards (’EN’ comes from the French ‘Euronorm’) provide a performance level for safety and are a large part of CE marking.

What are product safety standards?

Product safety standards are regulations and guidelines established to ensure that products are safe for consumers and meet specific safety requirements before being allowed on the market. The standards are designed to minimise risks such as injury and damage which has an impact on the end user.

Adhering to these standards protects consumers, helps manufacturers build trust in their brands and avoids legal liabilities that can result from unsafe and potentially illegal products.

The benefits of product safety standards?

Here are the top benefits of complying with product safety standards:

Protection for consumers

Product safety standards help keep consumers safe from harmful products. These standards include warning labels, safe packaging and strict rules for products such as toys, electricals and household appliances.

Transparency

Safety standards provide clear rules for manufacturing which helps ensure transparency throughout the process.

Quality control

Safety standards help ensure that quality control is better as products should follow the same design process and meet the required standards. It can help catch and fix issues early.

Improved brand reputation

Adhering to product safety standards can boost a company’s reputation by demonstrating a commitment to consumer safety. This helps build brand loyalty and trust.

Global market access

Product safety standards play a crucial role in international trade agreements and regulations, making compliance essential for companies aiming to grow. Ensuring compliance allows you to sell your products across different countries and regions.

What are CE marking safety standards?

A CE mark is a familiar sight on many products, and it shows that the product it is found upon complies with EU safety, health, and environmental requirements. CE marking can cover a wide range of products which fall into the following categories:

Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and foodstuffs are not required to have a CE mark. There are a number of EU Directives which may apply to your product and include the essential requirements that your product needs to fulfil. You will then need to ensure that your product complies with these requirements and some products may need a conformity assessment procedure by an authorised third party referred to as a ‘Notified Body”.

Manufacturers are required to fully test the product and check its conformity to EU legislation and supply the technical documentation for this. At this point, you will be able to place the CE mark on your product or its packaging in order for the item to go on sale.

What are UKCA marking safety standards?

The UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) mark was brought in since Brexit to replace the CE mark in the UK. This has since been reversed however the UKCA mark is still accepted as well as the CE mark. It works in a similar way and covers:

There are special rules for medical devices, rail interoperability, construction products, civil explosives, marine equipment, cableways, energy using products, transportable pressure equipment and hazardous substances.

The UKCA mark applies to products which are being placed on sale in England, Scotland, and Wales but not for the Northern Ireland or EU market. Many products allow for self-declaration of conformity by the manufacturer, although higher risk products usually require a third-party conformity assessment.

What are the ISO/IEC safety standards?

ISO and IEC are the international standards bodies and documents produced by them form the basis of a global system of more than 20,000 standards covering product safety, environmental performance, quality management, measurement techniques and much else.

In some cases, these standards are re-published verbatim by the European standards bodies (CEN and CENELEC) but they may also be used as foundation upon which CEN and CENELEC build their own requirements.

So far as the European standards bodies are concerned their responsibility is to produce standards which comply with legal requirements and this constrains the standards writers to a greater or lesser extent, in a way which does not apply to the authors of ISO/IEC STANDARDS.

Some ISO/IEC standards are used as the basis for voluntary certification schemes which give assurance to users about the performance of the product across arrange of measures such as safety, environmental performance, longevity and safety. EN standards are not used in this way since the certification requirements are mandatory and are laid out in the CE marking legislation.

When they join CEN and CENELEC (member countries which include all EU member states, plus the UK and some other non-European representatives) agree that they will adopt the full content of the EN standards without any changes and withdraw any conflicting national standards they have issued in the past. This is what really drives the harmonisation of products across the EU.

CEN and CENELEC standards which have been reviewed and found acceptable by the European Commission are listed in the Official Journal of the EU. The listing indicates that the standard provides a presumption of conformity with the requirements of one or more of the CE marking directives.

In other words, if manufacturers apply the requirements in the standards properly, they may presume that their product complies with the legal requirements of the Directives.

This does not prevent manufacturers from using novel technologies or solutions which are not described in the standards if they wish to, but if they do then the burden of proof falls upon them to show that the risk reduction solutions they have applied perform at least as well as the solutions provided by the harmonised standards.  

Who are the National Standardisation Bodies?

National Standardisation Bodies are the national pillars of the standardisation system in Europe. They are able to transfer European standards into identical national standards and can remove conflicting standards. The National Standardisation Bodies currently cover much of Europe, the EEA and the UK, including:

  • Austrian Standards International (ASI)
  • Belgian Bureau de Normalisation/Bureau voor Normalisatie (NBN)
  • Bulgarian Institute for Standardization (BDS)
  • Croatian Standards Institute (HZN)
  • Cyprus Organization for Standardisation (CYS)
  • Czech Office for Standards, Metrology and Testing (UNMZ)
  • Dansk Standard (DS)
  • Estonian Centre for Standardisation (EVS)
  • Finnish Suomen Standardisoimisliitto r.y. (SFS)
  • Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR)
  • Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN)
  • Greek National Quality Infrastructure System (NQIS/ELOT)
  • Hungarian Standards Institution (MSZT)
  • Icelandic Standards (IST)
  • National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI)
  • Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione (UNI)
  • Latvian Standard Ltd. (LVS)
  • Lithuanian Standards Board (LST)
  • Organisme Luxembourgeois de Normalisation (ILNAS)
  • The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA)
  • Nederlands Normalisatie-instituut (NEN)
  • Standards Norway (SN)
  • Polish Committee for Standardization (PKN)
  • Instituto Português da Qualidade (IPQ)
  • Standardisation Institute of the Republic of North Macedonia (ISRSM)
  • Romanian Standards Association (ASRO)
  • Institute for Standardization of Serbia (ISS)
  • Slovak Office of Standards Metrology and Testing (UNMS SR)
  • Slovenian Institute for Standardization (SIST)
  • Asociación Española de Normalización (UNE)
  • Swedish Institute for Standards (SIS)
  • Schweizerische Normen-Vereinigung (SNV)
  • Turkish Standards Institution (TSE)
  • British Standards Institution (BSI)

There are a lot of different safety standards that might apply to individual products, depending on what they are and where you want to sell them. Whilst there is a lot of work involved in attaining these standards, they are in place to make sure that everything which is sold to the general public is safe for them to use and does not pose them any unacceptable risks.

It is therefore important to make sure that you understand them and, where possible, that your product is compliant.

Contact our team

If you would like to learn more about product safety standards, or receive professional advice, get in touch. Our experts are on hand to guide you through the process, so have a chat with them about your needs.