“Hypo” is a word of Greek origin and means “Less”. Therefore, products marked as Hypoallergenic mean nothing less, no more than simply less allergic products. However, these are not non allergenic products. Each product can therefore be hypoallergenic, but not all can be non-allergenic.

The term hypoallergenic appeared in the 1950s. It sounds scientific, but it was created for the purposes of marketing and advertising, mainly cosmetics. Quickly it was widely adopted in other industries.

The widespread use of the word hypoallergenic based on the fact that there are no strictly defined standards or guidelines which allows the product to be considered hypoallergenic. There is no legal or scientific definition of the word hypoallergenic.