Child-resistant packaging

Child-resistant packaging – ISO 8317:2015 / ISO 13274:2013

What is child-resistant packaging?

Child-resistant packaging consists of a container and a suitable closure designed to be difficult for children to open while remaining easy for adults to use. The aim is to reduce children's access to potentially hazardous products without making opening unnecessarily complicated for adults and older users.

Child-resistant does not mean that packaging is completely safe or impossible for children to open. It means that testing has documented a higher level of protection against children accessing the contents. This makes child-resistant packaging an important part of product safety, particularly for medicines, cleaning products and chemicals.

We use the term child-resistant closure. Such a closure is designed to make packaging harder for children to open, but it can never be guaranteed to be impossible. Child-resistant solutions often require a combination of movements, such as the push-down-and-turn mechanism used in many caps.

The complete packaging, including the container, such as a bottle or can, and its closure, must be tested together to demonstrate that they function as a single unit.

Several effective solutions are available today, including caps and spray systems, thoroughly tested and approved as child-resistant to international standards.

Who can test to this standard?

Testing and verification of child-resistant packaging to ISO 8317:2015 must be carried out by laboratories complying with ISO 17025. We are proud to be one of the few testing institutes in Europe accredited for this standard, under accreditation number TEST-259 from Norwegian Accreditation.

We offer both full-scale testing and detailed evaluations of child-resistant packaging. All our tests result in a complete report and a certificate documenting conformity with ISO 8317:2015.

Advanced testing and chemical resistance

We are the only testing institute in Europe to offer these proprietary methods that complement standard testing, including testing how closures perform after prolonged contact with hazardous substances.

These methods, following ISO 13274 / ATM003, help document reliable closure performance after prolonged chemical exposure. This is especially important for packaging containing hazardous liquids or chemicals, where resistance to material degradation and wear is essential to maintain the child-resistant function.

How to test to ISO 8317:2015?

For testing to ISO 8317:2015, we offer a complete solution covering closures, complete packaging systems and evaluation of chemical resistance.

You can also find information on existing certificates for closures and complete packaging systems on our website.