The CHOICE Sunscreen Test – What Happened?

Last year there were headlines about sunscreen testing in Australia.

People who care about their skin and skin cancer prevention were understandably interested in what it meant, so I thought it was worth going through in more detail.

Consumer group CHOICE tested a range of popular SPF 50 and SPF 50+ sunscreens. In their testing, 16 of 20 products did not meet their labelled SPF claims — meaning the actual SPF measured in the lab was below what was printed on the bottle. (The Guardian)

That was disappointing.

In Australia, sunscreens are regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and are required to meet defined standards. If a product is labelled SPF 50+, people reasonably expect it to perform at that level. (Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA))

Most of the products tested still provided high protection (in the SPF 30+ range). However, accuracy matters — especially in a country with very high UV levels.

Rather than trying to cover everything in one article, I’m breaking this into a short blog series:

• What happened?

• How did this happen? (manufacturing and testing issues)

• SPF 30 vs 50 – what does it actually mean?

• Why real-world application changes everything

• Practical recommendations based on the best information we have right now

In the next post, we’ll look at how discrepancies like this can occur.

References

1. “Several leading Australian sunscreens don’t provide the protection they say,” The Guardian (June 12, 2025). (The Guardian)

2. “16 of 20 sunscreens didn’t meet SPF claims in CHOICE test,” CHOICE media release (June 16, 2025). (CHOICE)

3. “Sunscreen SPF testing – information for consumers,” Therapeutic Goods Administration (Sept 16, 2025). (Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA))