Major UK supermarket sun cream and Ultrasun fail safety tests as warning issued
Popular brands of sunscreen products - including one costing £28 - have failed an annual safety test, while a £2.99 supermarket alternative passed with 'flying colours', consumer experts Which? found.
Ultrasun Family SPF30, which costs £28 for 150ml and is marketed as being 'perfect for the whole family' and 'especially suitable for children and those with sensitive skin', failed to meet minimum sun cream UVA protection levels in two separate tests by Which?.
Morrisons Moisturising Sun Spray SPF30 also failed to meet minimum SPF protection levels in two tests.
(Image: Which? PA Wire) Ultrasun passed the UVB SPF part of the test but failed on UVA testing, scoring 9.1 and then 9.5 in a retest. Which? required a score of 10 or more for a pass.
Morrisons Moisturising Sun Spray product passed UVA tests but failed the UVB/SPF tests with scores of 25.7 and then 20.7 – short of the 30 or more needed to pass.
Which? tested 15 popular sun creams this year, including Boots, Garnier and Nivea as well as supermarket own-brand products.
Aldi's Lacura Sensitive Sun Lotion SPF50+, which costs £2.99 for 200ml, was found to protect the skin from both UVA and UVB rays.
Cien Sun Spray 30 SPF High (£3.79/200ml), from fellow discounter Lidl, also passed all SPF and UVA testing, with Which? describing it as a 'solid option for affordable and reliable sun protection'.
Some 11 other products, including Boots Soltan Protect & Moisturise Suncare Spray SPF30 (£5.50 for 200ml), Nivea Sun Protect & Moisture Lotion SPF30 (£7.90 for 200ml) and Sainsbury's Sun Protect Moisturising Lotion SPF30 (£5.50 for 200ml) passed SPF and UVA safety tests.
Natalie Hitchins, Which? head of home products and services, said: 'It's really concerning that widely available sunscreens could be putting families at risk by failing to offer the level of sun protection claimed on the packaging.
'While shoppers should avoid buying our 'don't buys', our results prove that there's no need to splash out to keep you and your loved ones safe in the sun as we've found cheap reliable options at Aldi and Lidl.'
A spokeswoman for Ultrasun said: 'Ultrasun is fully confident in our testing protocols. As an independent brand delivering very high UVB and UVA protection options for over 30 years, our detailed testing processes, independent and peer reviewed, continue to not only meet but surpass industry standards.
'Our chosen testing protocol is one of the strictest available. Further detail and clarification from Which? on their testing protocols would also be helpful, particularly on how these resulted in two different results from the same sample.'
Morrisons told Which? that it was looking closely at the data and working with its supplier to carry out additional independent testing.
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UVA and UVB rays both cause different types of damage, and not all sun creams protect against them in the same way.
UVA rays penetrate the skin more deeply than UVB to cause long-term damage, including all types of skin cancer, and play a role in the ageing process, such as causing wrinkles, sun spots and leathery skin.
UVB rays are mostly responsible for sunburn and skin reddening. They do not penetrate as deeply as UVA rays but they are just as damaging, and can play a large part in the development of skin cancers including melanoma.
SPF stands for 'sun protection factor', and indicates the level of protection a sun cream provides against burning rays.
SPFs range from 2 to 50+, with 50+ offering the most protection against UVB.
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