A poster research of the Standards and Testing Division (STD-ITDI) on Halal-compliant personal care products took the top spot in the Professional Poster Competition during the 2021 MMHRDC 5th International Symposium and 12th Annual Scientific Conference held on September 24-25, 2021.
The Trinity University of Asia (TUA), located in Quezon City, hosted the 2021 Metro Manila Health Research and Development Consortium symposium and scientific conference. It gathered 21 national and international agencies for the professional category of the poster research competition.
Following the theme “COVID-19 Pandemic Realities: Equitable Initiatives for a Healthy JUAN,” the entry “Halal-Compliant Personal Care Products: Promoting Health and Hygiene Amidst the COVID-19″ is part of an ongoing project of STD on Benchscale Production, Validation of Optimized Parameters, and Sensory Evaluation for the Market Research of Halal Cosmetics and Toiletries. It aimed to provide personal care products that are formulated using Halal-compliant ingredients and produced following guidelines in the Shariah.
The team, led by Dr. Rosalinda C. Torres, Scientist I and serving as Chief of STD, includes Ma. Rachel V. Parcon, Chelsea Kate Jose, Danielle Camille Canillo, Dana Taladro, and Harvy Jay Esmundo.
Together the team developed two Halal-compliant personal care products, which includes a moisturizing and whitening soap, and several variants of a shampoo with hair growth promoting properties.
Dr. Torres explains that, “The development of these Halal-compliant products will cater to the religious laws of a continuously growing global Muslim population. There are currently 1.8 billion Muslims in the world; 10.7 million of these are Muslim-Filipinos residing in the country.”
Further, she added that, several cosmetic and personal care products in the market are posing potential safety issues due to their composition which includes a complex mixture of harmful chemical ingredients.
US researchers report that one in eight of the 82,000 ingredients used in personal care products are industrial chemicals, including carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, and hormone disruptors.
Dr. Torres, thus would like to highlight the importance of not only taking into consideration the Halal integrity, safety, and cleanliness of food products, but also to consider products that are most likely being absorbed by the skin and could also be inhaled and ingested, like lipsticks, lip tints, and lip balms.
MMHRDC aims to strengthen collaboration among health research institutions in Metro Manila, as well as develop and enhance their research capacity. The Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) steers MMHRDC through its core agencies, namely DOST-PCHRD, DOST-NCR, DOH-NCR, CHED-NCR, and UP-NIH. Currently, MMHRDC has 43 member institutions. (AMGuevarra\\TSD-ITDI)