Period after opening symbol (open jar)

How to read it

The open jar is the period-after-opening symbol of the EU Cosmetics Regulation (Regulation 1223/2009, Annex VII), which also remains in UK law. The figure written beside or inside the jar is the period after opening for which, in the Regulation’s words, the product “is safe and can be used without any harm to the consumer”, given in months or years. It goes on products that keep for more than 30 months unopened, which need no best-before date. Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) points out that the period is not a random figure: it comes from testing recorded in the product’s safety report.

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Open jar or hourglass?

A cosmetic carries one or the other. A product that keeps for 30 months or less carries a date instead, after the hourglass or the words “best used before the end of” (Article 19). A product that keeps for longer carries the open jar and a number of months. Business Companion, the trading standards guidance for UK businesses, draws the line in the same place. The Regulation leaves the open jar off where durability after opening is not relevant.

In the United States

US law has no such requirement. The Food and Drug Administration says no US regulation requires cosmetics makers to print expiration dates on their labels; makers are responsible for working out a product’s shelf life as part of showing it is safe. An open jar on a product sold in the US is not required by US law.