A £28 family sunscreen has failed an annual Which? safety test while a £2.99 supermarket alternative passed with “flying colours”, the watchdog said.
Ultrasun Family SPF30, which costs £28 for 150ml and is marketed as being “perfect for the whole family” and “especially suitable for children and those with sensitive skin”, failed to meet minimum UVA protection levels in two separate tests by Which?.
Ultrasun passed the UVB SPF part of the test but failed on UVA testing, scoring 9.1 and then 9.5 in a retest.
Which? required a score of 10 or more for a pass.
Morrisons Moisturising Sun Spray SPF30 also failed to meet minimum SPF protection levels in two tests.
The product passed UVA tests but failed the UVB/SPF tests with scores of 25.7 and then 20.7 – short of the 30 or more needed to pass.
UVA and UVB rays both cause different types of damage, and not all sun creams protect against them in the same way.
UVA rays penetrate the skin more deeply than UVB to cause long-term damage, including all types of skin cancer, and play a role in the ageing process, such as causing wrinkles, sun spots and leathery skin.
UVB rays are mostly responsible for sunburn and skin reddening. They do not penetrate as deeply as UVA rays but they are just as damaging, and can play a large part in the development of skin cancers including melanoma.
SPF stands for ‘sun protection factor’, and indicates the level of protection a sun cream provides against burning rays.
SPFs range from 2 to 50+, with 50+ offering the most protection against UVB.
Which? tested 15 popular sun creams this year, including Boots, Garnier and Nivea as well as supermarket own-brand products.
Aldi’s Lacura Sensitive Sun Lotion SPF50+, which costs £2.99 for 200ml, was found to protect the skin from both UVA and UVB rays.
Cien Sun Spray 30 SPF High (£3.79/200ml), from fellow discounter Lidl, also passed all SPF and UVA testing, with Which? describing it as a “solid option for affordable and reliable sun protection”.
Some 11 other products, including Boots Soltan Protect & Moisturise Suncare Spray SPF30 (£5.50 for 200ml), Nivea Sun Protect & Moisture Lotion SPF30 (£7.90 for 200ml) and Sainsbury’s Sun Protect Moisturising Lotion SPF30 (£5.50 for 200ml) passed SPF and UVA safety tests.
Natalie Hitchins, Which? head of home products and services, said: “It’s really concerning that widely available sunscreens could be putting families at risk by failing to offer the level of sun protection claimed on the packaging.
“While shoppers should avoid buying our ‘don’t buys’, our results prove that there’s no need to splash out to keep you and your loved ones safe in the sun as we’ve found cheap reliable options at Aldi and Lidl.”
A spokeswoman for Ultrasun said: “Ultrasun is fully confident in our testing protocols. As an independent brand delivering very high UVB and UVA protection options for over 30 years, our detailed testing processes, independent and peer reviewed, continue to not only meet but surpass industry standards.
“Our chosen testing protocol is one of the strictest available. Further detail and clarification from Which? on their testing protocols would also be helpful, particularly on how these resulted in two different results from the same sample.”
Morrisons told Which? that it was looking closely at the data and working with its supplier to carry out additional independent testing.
A Morrisons spokeswoman added: “We work closely with our supplier and conduct extensive efficacy and safety testing during product development. As such, all our sun care products are tested to the relevant industry test standards and are not approved for launch until they meet these standards. During development and production all tested variants consistently achieved an SPF of 30.
“In direct response to this report from Which? we have retested the SPF against the British and International Standard BS EN ISO 24444:2020 and can confirm the product has achieved an SPF value of 34.5 and can therefore be labelled as SPF 30.”
