Mexico publishes labeling standard for pre-packaged cosmetics
In Mexico, a cosmetic company must register with the SSA (Secretariat of Health) for a physical and chemical analysis, complete with a Spanish translation and / or a free sale certificate and consular legalization.
With this new standard, the Ministry has laid down a fixed set of requirements and recommendations to ensure that each product enters the market meeting regulatory standards, providing that cosmetic companies follow the new labeling procedures stringently.
“This standard is mandatory in the national territory to persons or entities engaged in the process or importation of cosmetic products.”
The new requirements are likely to affect some of the industry's biggest players that are active in the Mexican market, like Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.
Requirements
The standard PROY‑NOM‑141‑SSA1/SCFI‑2010 ‘Labelling of pre‑packaged cosmetic products, Health and commercial labelling,’ is published in the administration’s official journal (Diario Oficial de la Federación) and some of the new requirements are as follows;
- Information be must be true and verifiable when labeled
- Labels bearing the products covered by this standard must be set so that they remain available until the time of purchase and use under normal conditions.
- In the marketing of cosmetic products, the labeling will not use texts, names, trademarks, images or other signs, figurative or otherwise, to imply that these product characteristics or properties lacking.
- All products must bear the generic name, as set forth in normative Appendix "A" of this standard, and may include the specific. For products whose denomination is not within the aforesaid order, your name will be the one that best describe them or the more common or usual, may use an illustration or cartoon to represent the use of the product cosmetic.
- The information should be presented in Spanish with the exception of the forms cosmetic that may be declared in the original language.
- In the case of imported products, such data may be incorporated into the product in the Territory National after customs clearance and prior to marketing.
The standard was jointly developed by the Ministry, the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (COFEPRIS), and the Federal Consumer General Address Verification and Monitoring Research Coordination.
For a more detailed list of the requirements, please see here.
Mexican government getting tough with cosmetics sector
In recent years, the Mexican government has clamped down on cosmetic companies looking to import their products onto the market.
In 2009, it announced it was imposing an additional 20 percent higher tariff on certain personal care products imported from the US, then, estimated as having an affect approximately $2.4bn in trade with the United States.
According to the government, the move was part of an effort to end a pilot scheme to allow Mexican trucks into the US.
