With the progressive development of the beauty industry, clients expect higher and higher standards for the products including the legislations and requirements for cosmetic presentation. Cosmetic packaging materials are not only related to the safety and functionality of products and usage: they are even more connected to consumer’s experience. Thus various countries and regions have addressed the issues of environmental concern, health standards, and safety with respect to cosmetic labeling regulatory rules.
To start with, it is necessary to point out that overall, the use of global or US cosmetic packaging also might necessitate a range of different issues in implementation across different regions and countries due to their specific regulatory frameworks. For example, cosmetic products and their packaging placed in European Union countries should follow the requirements and restrictions set by the Cosmetics Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. This regulation mentions designing of packages that are chemically inactive and do not allow contamination of a cosmetic with packaging material. On the same note, the fda also has strict requirements on cosmetic packaging materials like the pharmacopoeia does for drugs, focusing on the absence of components harmful to the human body in the packing.
Next, of great significance are the sanitation requirements set for cosmetic packaging. Due to the fact that cosmetics come into direct contact with the skin, the presence of unsanitary packaging materials is a risk as they may serve as reservoirs of microbes and contaminants. For this reason, the standards of different countries generally prescript the materials to be of food grade quality, as PET, glass and aluminum. These materials can avoid chemical reactions with products and are easy to disinfect and clean.
There are also significant changes related to the requirements for the environment. Taking into consideration increasing environmental harm due to plastic waste, there are tougher packaging requirements for cosmetic products. For instance, in the course of the accomplishing the so-called “circular economy”, the EU is in favor of the use of recyclable or biodegradable materials for boxes. In China, the “Administrative Measures for Cosmetic Packaging Materials” which were recommended by the State Administration for Market Regulation advocate the use of greener materials in bone-forming materials where the emphasis is on using environmentally sound packaging designs and minimising wastage.
Whoever wants to venture in the using or provision of cosmetic packaging materials has to base the production and application on the set of laws and regulations and also the industry standards. An example is the Chinese national standard GB/T 29606-2013 which is translated as “General Technical Requirements for Cosmetic Packaging Containers” that sets forth the physical and chemical qualities of cosmetic packaging containers and safety and labeling of the packaging materials. Moreover, certain industry bodies such as the international cosmetic ingredient association (ICMAD) and the international cosmetic packaging association (ICPA) also provided useful technical recommendations to the enterprises concerning compliance with the regulations
To summarize, it is fundamental to ensure that the regulations cover the landscape of the parameters as such are universally requisite in updating the quality of goods and maintaining the safety of end users. From the choice of materials, sanitary requirements up to ecological ones, the development of rules and norms of any industry always seeks one purpose of making the end users or clients healthy while meeting the target. As the world enhances the focus on environmental conservation, so will be the enactment of more stringent regulations on the cosmetic packaging materials meeting and protecting the rights of the consumers.