Important Update Regarding UFI & Labelling

Published: 02 September 2020

The deadline to benefit from the transitional period looms for products supplied into the EU (including Southern Ireland) and Northern Ireland.

For products supplied into England, Wales and Scotland only, the guidance has now changed.

Background Information: The UFI number will be used by poison centres for emergency health response purposes. It applies to products deemed to contain hazardous substances and impacts a wide range of markets, from paints, household cleaning products and adhesives.

For products supplied into the EU (including Southern Ireland) and Northern Ireland

The deadline for submitting your product information to benefit from the transitional period until 2025 is 01 January 2021.

Understandably, given Covid-19, submitting your safety data sheets (SDS) to the appropriate poison centre may not have been on the top of your agenda. However, by submitting your SDS now, you will give yourself extra time to generate your UFI codes (a 16-character number), submit your poison centre notifications and to generate, print and place appropriate product labels.

This is a considerable amount of work, on top of your usual schedule, which is why we strongly advise submitting your SDS before 01 January 2021 to benefit from the transitional period.

If you supply into the EU (including Southern Ireland) and Northern Ireland, and do not submit your SDS to the relevant poison centres before 01 January 2021, you will have to be ‘UFI’ ready by the dates listed below:

• 1 January 2021 for products intended for consumer use only.
• 1 January 2021 for products intended for professional use only.
• 1 January 2024 for products intended for industrial use only.

You should submit your SDS to the poison centre of each country you supply product into (with your own brand).

For products supplied into England, Wales and Scotland only

If you supply product into England, Wales and Scotland only, you do not require a UFI code, but you are still required to submit your SDS to the UK poison centre NPIS (http://www.npis.org/) before 01 January 2021.

The guidance for this has changed since our first update on this subject matter. We will advise if there are any further changes. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your account manager.