Unique Formulation Identifier

The Unique Formulation Identifier is going to be required for mixtures sold within the EU.  The UFI is generated when a mixture is registered with an individual Poison Centre, and is then valid across the EU.

There is a phase in period as follows:

• consumer use, 2020
• professional use, 2021
• industrial use, 2024

The situation for UK-based companies is complicated because of Brexit, which will occur before Poison Centres and the use of UFIs is required within Europe.  Clearly ,any UK company selling a mixture into Europe will have to comply with these requirements, but at the time of writing (5th April, 2017), it is now known whether the UK will implement its own version.

Mixtures are required to be notified to Poison Centres if:

• they are classified as hazardous to health
• they are classified as having physical hazards

This means that mixtures are not required to be notified if:

• they are only classified for environmental hazards
• they are not classified for CLP

The UFI number must be placed on the mixture label as follows:

• it should be placed in the Supplementary Information section of the label (as this is a European requirement and not part of GHS)
• it should be preceded by the letters UFI (so that it is clear what the number refers to).
• The format of the UFI number is a mixture of alphabetical and numerical figures in the a 16-figure format, with 4 blocks of numbers or letters separated by hyphens.
• The overall format is UFI: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX .

The UFI number should also be placed in Section 2.2 of any Safety Data Sheet (SDS) which may be required for the product.