Teach Soap

Hello all! I haven't been on in a while as I have been off experimenting with my M&P soaps and have come up with (I think!) some nice designs of cupcakes and slices of cake soaps. I am getting good feedback from family and friends and would like to begin thinking about selling them. I am based in Ireland, so obviously EU laws would be relevent for me. I have had some great help and advice from two lovely Irish CP soapers, regarding certifications for setting up, but there is one thing I can't seem to get any clarification on. Is it possible to sell soaps that look like food, but (of course) aren't food. I came across a this that was posted on a European Commission website dealing with 'health and consumers'. There are pics at the end showing lots of things that look like food but aren't and it says they are banned!!!

http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/safety/pr ... dex_en.htm

However there are tonnes of places selling this type of stuff they are everywhere... especially as I have now started noticing it myself!!

So can anyone else who is EU based help me? Is this really the case, or is it possible to label something clearly saying 'this is not food - do not eat!!' or is that not enough??? I am quite prepared to get all the certs I need, but I don't want to go to all the trouble and expense of it all and then discover I can't sell them anyway!!

Thank you for reading! x

thanks so much for the reply!! I this is just one of these ridiculous laws dreamt up by beaurocrats with nothing better to do than to make up silly laws. either way, I am thinking of still doing the same design of cakes and cupcakes slices, but having no foodie scents in them, so that way they still look nice and smell nice, but coudl not be mistaken for food. I would also put warnings all over the labels sayign 'this is not food' and 'do not eat' 'keep away from children'. I have been even toying with the idea of some sort of stamp / mold with warnings on them so it is actually on the soap as well...

Loads of places are selling them though, including one very well known place beginning with 'L'... when i looked at their website the first thing that popped up was a bubble bar carrot scented with fruity fragrances!! I may just have to take a little wander in there soon and have a peek at their labelling!

However, I would never for a minute want to sell something to anyone that I felt was unsafe, for my own conscience, let alone the law, but I think this law is crazy...anyone who ever bit into a bar of soap would spit it out pretty pronto, no matter how nice is smelled.... and...what about all those plain bars of soap that smell of grapefruit, or strawberry, or lemon? They don't look like food, but they smell like food. Anyway, kids don't need something to look or smell like food to put it in their mouths anyway...judging from my two little ones, everything seemed to end up in their mouths when they were little... the EU might as well ban 'stuff' just in case a child put it in their mouths and choked!!

I have a feeling there must be some sort of way around it...anything I have seen along those lines say 'this is not food' or 'do not eat'. I will continue my research in any case....thanks so much again for your reply!!!

I've had a guy bite into my soap once and he said that it was a terrible cheese! Good luck on your endeavor. I don't make any foody soaps.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

My sister (28) bit into a strawberry heart soy melt just last year!

Thought it was chocolate???

It was hilarious & we don't let her forget either!!!

Hahaha, that's awesome!!

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!