As previously reported, Health Canada opened a consultation process this past summer to gather stakeholder comments and feedback regarding potential amendments to the Cosmetic Regulations. This was expected as Health Canada had announced at CA’s Spring Virtual Regulatory Workshop their plans to amend the Cosmetic Regulations to require the disclosure of specific fragrance allergens on product labelling and to enhance the regulatory oversight of cosmetics.
CA worked extensively with our Product Compliance & Market Access and Facility Compliance & Manufacturing Committees to consolidate a comprehensive industry response on behalf of our members. Our submission can be found here – FINAL CA INPUT – Pre-Consultation Notice Cosmetic Regulation Reforms vF Oct 5 2021 filed with HC.
Importantly, CA has and continues to stress the importance of ensuring any consultation is undertaken within the context of the Self-Care Framework and not in isolation as some of the proposed changes can also affect products that are regulated as non-prescription drugs or natural health products. With the implementation of the Self-Care Framework now underway, CA will continue to raise with Health Canada the need to consolidate the regulatory administration of cosmetics, OTC drugs, and NHPs into one Directorate. (The Cosmetic Regulations are currently administered by the Consumer and Hazardous Products Safety Directorate while OTC drugs and NHPs are administered by the Natural and Non-prescription Health Products Directorate.)
The Pre-Consultation Notice provides an overview of the amendments under consideration which include:
- Adding a requirement to disclose specific fragrance allergens on labels of cosmetic
- Allowing flexibility for the disclosure of ingredients and specific fragrance allergens on labels of small packages
- Improving oversight of cosmetics by:
- clarifying terminology and improving the level of detail for information submitted in a cosmetic notification, in order to facilitate its use for risk management purposes;
- enhancing compliance and enforcement oversight with regard to who is responsible for responding to evidence of safety requests for cosmetics; and
- Addressing administrative updates.
CA will continue to keep members updated on developments.
