Baby personal care firms vouch for product safety

Leading manufacturers of baby soaps and oils such as Wipro Consumer Care, Emami and Dabur said their products conform to all the product safety regulations in the country, denying reports that their products too would come under the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administrations scanner.

"We have not received any communication from the FDA in this regard. We follow all the prescribed product safety rules in the country," a Wipro spokesperson said.

According to Dabur, there was no question of its baby products coming under the FDA's review as they do not contain liquid paraffin.

Day before yesterday, the Maharashtra FDA claimed that its tests showed the presence of allergic substances in the baby oil sold by the US health and hygiene company Johnson & Johnson.

FDA commissioner A Ramakrishnan had said it would write to a few other companies found guilty and ask them to stop marketing their products as baby oil.

The FDA has alleged that the liquid paraffin used in baby oils could be carcinogenic. A senior Emami executive too said that the company's products have been launched in the market after a series of stringent quality tests.

"We are absolutely sure that our products are totally safe for consumers," he said.

According to a source, FDA has also raised questions as to whether Wipro uses sandalwood oil, as advertised on its Santoor soap. Santoor is a Rs 250-crore power brand for the Bangalore-based Wipro Consumer Care.

Some companies in question also claimed that paraffin was not a banned substance for baby products and that the mere usage of paraffin does not make the product unfit for infants.