Since 1987, the European directive 87/357/CEE regulates the products which, not having the appearance of what they are, compromise the health or the safety of the consumers. Member States having identified a product of this type can thus take “all the necessary measures to prohibit the marketing, import and either the manufacture or the export of the products concerned”.
Despite these regulations and the recall of numerous articles by the European control authorities, new products that imitate food are regularly sold commercially, in France and abroad. Depilatory creams like compote to drink, effervescent balls for the bath imitating sweets or more recently, in the context of the COVID 19 crisis, hydroalcoholic solutions sold in bottles of wine, have thus been reported and then withdrawn from the market.
Too much resemblance between a detergent or cosmetic product and a food can cause potentially serious ingestion, especially in children. Both healthcare professionals and citizens have the option of reporting these imitations to the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) which will carry out the analysis of the actual risk incurred.