FDA Gains New Power to Oversee Cosmetics Industry
The agency will issue manufacturing standards for cosmetic products and require makers to disclose ingredients under Congress’s spending bill
Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration more power to regulate cosmetics, ensure fast-tracked drugs work and oversee infant formula supplies in its end-of-year spending bill.
The legislation, a wide-ranging bill that authorized $1.65 trillion in federal government spending for fiscal 2023, addresses several gaps in the FDA’s regulatory powers that the agency, lawmakers and some industry groups had been seeking for years to fill.
The Biden administration has said it supports the bill and urged Congress to quickly pass it.
Under the legislation, Congress made the first changes to the FDA’s oversight of cosmetics since 1938. The bill orders the agency to issue manufacturing standards for the products, and requires companies to tell the FDA where their products are made and the ingredients—steps that were previously voluntary.
In addition, the legislation also mandates that cosmetic manufacturers report serious side effects to the FDA, gives the agency power to issue a mandatory recall and requires that cosmetics and fragrances disclose information about allergens on their labels.
“There’s been negotiations for roughly 10 years over cosmetic legislation,” said Peter Barton Hutt, a food-and-drug lawyer who has represented the cosmetics industry. “Congress never got very excited about it because cosmetics are by far the safest thing that FDA regulates.”