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Topic
Since 2021, hazardous mixtures placed on the EU market must be notified to a Poison Centre before sale, in a harmonised format with a unique UFI code on the label. The duty falls on importers and downstream users. The work, in practice, is data management at scale.
Quick answer
Poison Centre Notification (PCN) is the duty under CLP Annex VIII to notify hazardous mixtures to designated Poison Centres in EU Member States before placing them on the market, using the ECHA harmonised format. The notification carries composition, classification and the UFI code printed on the label. The duty applies to importers and downstream users of hazardous mixtures (consumer, professional and industrial use, with staggered deadlines). Updates are required on classification, composition or packaging change.
See how Worldover handles PCN at scaleHow this connects to Worldover
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See how Worldover worksCLP Annex VIII sets a single harmonised format for notifying hazardous mixtures to Poison Centres across the EU. Before placing a mixture on the market, the importer or downstream user submits the notification through the ECHA Submission Portal to each Member State where the mixture is sold. The submission carries the trade name, classification, full composition (with concentration ranges allowed for some components), toxicological information and the UFI.
The UFI (Unique Formula Identifier) is a 16-character code generated from the company VAT number and a formulation number. It is printed on the label and ties the physical product back to the notification. Identical formulas can share a UFI. Different formulas must not.
Notifications must be updated on changes to classification, composition (outside the allowed ranges), product identifier, packaging or toxicological information. Failure to notify, or to keep the notification current, is a market access issue: Member State authorities can withdraw the product from sale and penalties vary by country.
Worldover for this
Worldover holds composition, classification and UFI together, generates the harmonised PCN dossier and propagates updates to ECHA automatically. No spreadsheet of submissions.
See chemical compliance softwareFor a company with a handful of products, PCN is a one-off project. For a company with hundreds of SKUs across several Member States, it is a structural data problem: composition must be held as structured data, classifications must be derived consistently, UFIs must be generated and traced to formulations, and updates must propagate to the submission portal without manual re-entry. Worldover holds composition, classification and UFI in one substance master and submits to PCN as a byproduct.
Every mixture classified for health or physical hazards needs a PCN submission with a UFI on the label, per market, and any change in composition or classification triggers a fresh submission. Tracking which mixtures need updating across EU member states is where the burden lands.
Worldover holds composition, classification and UFI together against each market's poison centre rules. When a mixture changes or a classification moves, affected submissions are flagged, Willow drafts the updated PCN package, and your team reviews instead of re-keying.
FAQs
Related
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ReadA 20-minute working session. Your SKUs, your customers, your documentation. No slide deck.