German tests find many child sunscreen creams and UV shirts fail protection standards

Stiftung Warentest evaluated 23 sunscreen products for children and identified five that performed poorly, including expensive brands that did not meet their labelled SPF levels. The two top‑scoring products, a Cien Sun Kids spray from Lidl and a Sensitiv spray from Tabaluga, both earned a 1.7 rating and were the cheapest in the test, showing that effective sun protection need not be costly. Several products also contained substances such as EDTA and certain plasticisers, which could affect the environment if washed into water.

A separate Austrian study by the Verbraucher­information (VKI) examined twelve UV‑protective shirts for children. Only six of the shirts met the advertised UV‑protection factor of 50+, while a plain white T‑shirt offered almost no protection and a black T‑shirt achieved the same high UV factor as the best‑rated UV shirts. The VKI warned that about half of the tested garments did not provide the promised protection, raising safety concerns for families planning summer holidays.