It's not encouraging at all I'm afraid, it doesn't mean anything. It's the classic marketing phrase used by most companies whose products are not cruelty-free, and the fact that the packaging doesn't mention it is another indication. All it means is that the finished product hasn't been tested on animals - and why? Because the company cares so much about animals? No. Because it's illegal for them to test the finished product on animals. But they don't tell you that, they tell you that the product is cruelty-free because it hasn't been tested on animals and hope you'll think they done that voluntarily and that you won't actually analyse what they're saying. In a way this ploy, which is used right across the industry, is even more immoral than those companies that admit to animal testing.
For a product to be cruelty-free we need to know about all the ingredients. Are any of them animal-derived? Have the ingredients been tested on animals in the recent past - and if so how recent? Or, indeed, are they being tested on animals right now before Naturally European buys them and puts them into the "cruelty-free" product that hasn't been tested on animals? What are the supplier protocols being used to ensure cruelty-free ingredients? And the main thing to find out is whether Naturally European has a Fixed Cut Off Date in place - not a Rolling Cut Off Date, which allows them to use in five years time ingredients which are being tested on animals now. Without a FCOD no company can legitimately claim to be cruelty-free, and they certainly wouldn't be awarded certification by Cruelty-Free International, which is the universally acknowledged cruelty-free accreditation body. I'll email the questions to them that will provide the truth and see what they say.[/QUOTE
I agree, claims can be misleading. For those reasons I always check the go cruelty free/cruelty free international website to see whether a brand is certified. If they are not certified I won't buy from them
