Marketing a cosmetic or personal care product requires proper labeling. Labeling informs consumers of a product’s intended use, its ingredients and the net quantity of contents, any related warnings, and its place of manufacture or distribution. Cosmetic labeling refers to all labels and other written, printed or graphic matter on cosmetic products such as shampoo, lotion, sunblock, and a myriad of other products.
The cosmetics distributed in India must comply with the cosmetic regulatory compliance by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, The Legal Metrology Act, 2009, and The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Here, in this article, you will get all the information related to cosmetic labeling in India.
Labeling Requirements for Cosmetics in India
(1) On both the inner and outer labels
(a) The name of the cosmetic product
(b) The name of the manufacturer and complete manufacturing address of the cosmetic. The name of the manufacturer and his place of manufacture shall be along with pin code if the cosmetic product is in a very small size container where the address of the manufacturer cannot be given,
(c) Information of Use before (Month and Year) of the cosmetic.
(2) On the outer label
A declaration of the net contents measurable weight for solids, fluid measure for liquids, and weight for semi-solids with numerical count.
(3) On the Inner Label; where a hazard exists
(a) After sale use direction for the consumer
(b) Any warning, caution or special direction for the consumer of the cosmetic product
(c) Names and quantities of the ingredients of the cosmetic that are hazardous or poisonous.
(4) A proper batch number where details of manufacture of the particular batch from which the substance in the container is taken.
(5) Manufacturing date and Use before date
(6) If a package of cosmetic has only one label such label shall contain all the information required to be shown on both the inner and the outer labels.
(7) The list of ingredients, present in concentration of more than one per cent need to be in descending order of weight or volume at the time they are added, followed by those in concentration equal to or less than or one per cent, in any order, and preceded by the word “INGREDIENTS”.
(8) Labeling requirements are relevant to Indian Standards laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards for the cosmetics covered under Schedule “S”.
With the packaging of cosmetics products, proper cosmetic labeling is extremely essential. Most important cosmetic labeling requirements are manufacturer and importer’s details in addition to the product name, pack size, ingredients, batch no., manufacturing date, Use before date, MRP of the packed cosmetic product inclusive of GST, RC No. All reported details must be consistent across all documents provided by the cosmetic manufacturer for cosmetic product registration and getting cosmetic import licenses in India. A cosmetic manufacturer may have to compensate for any issues related to cosmetic regulatory compliance of the product.
Want to know more about cosmetic labelling in India?
For more information, do not hesitate to contact CliniExperts.
References:
- Labels & labelling. Available at: http://www.mcrhrdi.gov.in/drugs/week2/Labels%20&%20labelling2.pdf.Accessible on: 27 th May, 2020.
