PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – New FDA requirements could impact your medicine cabinet, your showering habits and even your skin.
The new rules will change the way cosmetics brands do business, but David Lennarz, co-founder and president of Registrar Corp, says they have been a long time coming.
“Voluntary requirements for the cosmetics industry have essentially only existed since the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938,” Lennarz said.
There are now five things companies must do to comply with the Cosmetics Regulation Modernisation Act.
Companies must now register their operations with the FDA, list every cosmetic product on the market, including ingredients, and provide updates, and provide a way on the packaging for consumers to report adverse side effects.
“Third, and this has already happened, companies now have to provide a way on the packaging for consumers to easily report adverse reactions. It could be as simple as a QR code, it could be a URL, and basically brand owners need to be able to capture that information from a consumer,” Lennarz said.
Other requirements include keeping records to ensure a product’s safety and reporting any adverse reactions to the FDA. Last year alone, the FDA recorded 5,000 adverse reactions.
“They then actually have to submit that information to the FDA. And usually then they have to make a decision whether they should recall a product to, you know, protect the consumers, us,” Lennarz said.
The FDA is now enforcing these rules.
“It really was the Wild West, with thousands and thousands of products, many of which we all use, that were very loosely regulated until now,” Lennarz said.
Meghan Schiller
