According to Chinese media reports, Beijng authorities will require cosmetic products, whether imported or locally-made to be marked with all their ingredients.
Current Chinese regulations [1] require cosmetics to be labelled with the following indications:
– name and address of the manufacturer,
– name and address of the importer / distributor or of the legally registered agent in China (for imported goods),
– name of the product [2]
– net quantity,
– date of production and ‘quality assurance period’, or, batch number of production and expiry date,
– storage conditions that are required to guarantee the minimum durability of the product and its safety (if necessary),
– safety precautions and directions for use,
– country of origin,
– production license and hygiene license numbers (or registration numbers, for imported cosmetics), and the number of the corresponding product standard.
Of course, these mandatory requirements are to be labelled in Chinese.
If confirmed, China’s requirement for a full labelling of cosmetic ingredients would align Chinese regulations on Europe and US laws, both requiring cosmetic producers to disclose the lists of ingredients in their products.
The new requirement is set to be effective before June 2010 and the sales of products failing to meet the new policy would be prohibited at that time.
