mahu Press Release

16 August 2010
 

mahu skincare are extremely concerned by the content of a recent Consumer Magazine article and by the reckless approach taken by Consumer Magazine. The article contains many errors, untruths and omissions, a number of which have now been picked up by other media.

 

mahu were given the opportunity, ahead of publication, to read and comment on the article. They did so and pointed out the errors and untruths. Consumer Magazine, however, were clearly not interested in their story being factual and irresponsibly decided to go ahead and publish, regardless of mahu feedback and comments. mahu can only wonder why.

 

Here is mahu’s response to requests from concerned consumers to present the facts:

• All skin care requires a preservative if it is to have a shelf life of greater than 6 months for the supermarket channel.

Up until 2008 mahu used Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate (IPBC) in minute quantities as a preservative. Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate (IPBC) was a preservative commonly used by many cosmetic and skincare companies prior to 2008. At that time this preservative was believed to be superior to Parabens, because studies had highlighted possible links to cancer as a result of paraben use.

 mahu’s ongoing research and its commitment to both safety and quality lead them to change their formulations so as to remove IPBC. “We are a business that cares deeply about the safety of mums-to-be and their babies” said Kathryn Fromont. “I’m a mother of three young children myself, and they’ve all used and continue to use mahu products”, she added.

mahu last manufactured with IPBC in September 2007.

Fact: The New Zealand Health Department issued a notice in 2008 to all companies using IPBC in ‘leave on skincare products for under 3 year olds’.  This required the reformulation of affected products and importantly allowed for the sale of all remaining stock of affected products over the course of the following 12 months.  mahu followed the terms of this notice, but went further -  because of its commitment to the safety of its customers – it immediately re-formulated all products containing IPBC and requested retailers to return affected stock for a credit or exchange with product newly formulated without IPBC.

Fact: The NZ Health department did not ban or request the recall of any mahu products, nor did it single out mahu as Consumer Magazine have done.

mahu products are batch coded on the bottom of the bottles.  This gives full traceability including date of manufacture and ingredient listings.

mahu have over-labelled ingredient listings on a small number of products in the range as their bottles were pre-printed, and thus it was considered environmentally-friendly to over-label these rather than add the bottles to a landfill. Over-labelling is a common practice. Consumer Magazine’s assertion that mahu was being deceptive and misleading is refuted in the strongest terms.  

  

So there you have it.  The facts.  All of this was explained to Consumer Magazine prior to publication, and we emphasise again that they had every opportunity to ensure their story was factually correct. Instead they chose, for whatever reason, to single out mahu and to ignore the facts which were communicated to them.

 

mahu was started approx 7 years ago by Kathryn and Andrew, a brother and sister team from Hamilton. “mahu is our baby and we have put our heart and soul into creating safe quality skincare for New Zealand mums and their precious babies. We have not, nor will we, deviate from that commitment” said Kathryn Fromont.

 

“We would like to thank all of our loyal customers for their support and messages of encouragement,” said Kathryn Fromont, “I am extremely proud of our integrity as a business. I stand by our values and our ethical and honest approach to all that we do. Our customers and their safety are paramount and our products reflect this deeply personal and heartfelt commitment to their well-being.”

 

Our products are enthusiastically recommended by midwives throughout NZ, and sold in terrific retailers like Countdown, Foodtown, Woolworths and New World supermarkets.

 

Kathryn is happy to answer any questions at any time.