"Not tested on animals"?

Question

If a product is not tested on animals, then what are they tested on to ensure that it's safe for consumers?

Just curious, I am by no means encouraging the act of testing on animals.

Answer 1

Maybe they're not tested at all.  If something says it's not tested on animals, I believe that means the finished product as a whole has not been tested on animals but the component ingredients may have been.

Answer 2

It only means the FINISHED product was not tested on animals.  All of the individual ingrediants ARE tested on animals.  It is a loopehole in the advertising laws, which allows manufactuors to put such lables on their products.

It is also true that is it has been five years a product is concidered not to have been tested on animals.  However the way around that is to test individual ingrediants, or some concoction of them, as long as it is not the final complete mix of the ingrediants.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

Answer 3

Prisoners - they gotta do something down Gauntanamo to entertain the guards.

Answer 4

If the components of the cosmetic item were tested 5 or more years ago and none of the componenents have been tested within the past 5 years then it is considered 'not tested on animals'.

So basically, if you have a current 'new' component that is being tested right now...you just wait 5 yrs to put it in your cosmetic or shampoo or whatever and then you can label it 'not tested on animals'.

Answer 5

They are usually tested on people who are willing participants. They often get paid to do it and some do for a little extra cash. Anyway, the products may react differently to people than to animals, so usually the products are tested on humans, but only after all the tweaks have been worked out by testing on animals. I know, it's cruel.