SFDA Plans to Set up A Comprehensive Info System to Monitor Cosmetic Manufacturers

As we embark on the 2013, the Dept. of Health Food and Cosmetics Supervision under the SFDA is seeking public comments on the need to establish a comprehensive supervisory information system to effectively monitor cosmetic manufacturers.

Despite its continued development, the cosmetic industry in China suffers from illegal addition of banned cosmetic ingredients, over-of-limit restricted ingredients, counterfeits, false advertising and disqualified labels. However, there is lack of information platform to enable the government to efficiently supervise all production enterprises and products of inconsistent quality.

Therefore, it is urgent and of great importance to set up a data sharing platform that would make the dynamic state of production enterprises of cosmetics and the SFDA’s work progress and supervisory results mutually accessible.

There would be 7 main function modules in the system:

•  Hygiene license for manufacturers
•  Administrative license for products

  Note: Being linked the SFDA’s review and approval system, licensing information for both the cosmetic manufacturers and products will be retrievable.

•  Daily supervision on manufacturers

  The products, business partners, production process and sale are all within the scope of supervision. Cosmetic manufacturers are required to put into the system detailed info about the purchase of raw materials, production process, category, quantity of every batch, packing and testing of products along with their business partners, such as suppliers, sales companies, distributors, etc.

•  Supervision and testing of products

  The samples info, the testing institution that carries out tests and the testing results will be recorded in the system.

•  Special risk monitoring of products

  It should be noted that competent authorities will conduct special inspection regularly to re-evaluate some products to see whether there are prohibited ingredients, out-of-limit restricted substances or potential risk substances.

  By analyzing the testing results, products that present relatively higher risk will be the focus of supervision.

•  Credit rating of cosmetic enterprises

  Based on the results of daily supervision and special risk monitoring, enterprises will be classified and administrated hierarchically in the future.

•  Other info release
  • Cosmetic regulatory news and updates
  • All license approval info from the SFDA and local FDAs
  • Daily inspection results
  • Samples testing results

The establishment of the system requires close cooperation of all cosmetic manufacturers. After it is launched, the testing results and the credit of manufacturers will be accessible to the public.

In Consequence, the system would contribute to clean out illegal activities and encourages manufacturers to upgrade their production process in order to maintain decent reputation.

Besides, the system could serve as a huge database for analysis and research. It can be expected that databases will be built, covering cosmetic standards, prohibited and restricted substances lists, important research achievements at home and abroad, information on manufactures and commercially available products.

You may want to submit your comments to the SFDA before 15 Jan 2013. 

Reference Link

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