European focus on quality can be demanding for Asian companies targeting Europe

Asian companies targeting the European market will need to be aware of regulation changes that will increase certain costs especially those associated with products safety testing and quality, according to Jean-Jacques Bourgois, who is leading workshops at this year’s in-cosmetics Asia on the subject.

Although the new EU Cosmetics Regulation will streamline some processes and lighten the administrative burden in some areas, the safety testing required will be more rigorous.

One of the biggest changes, according to Bourgois, is the new Product Safety Report that is more demanding than the Safety Assessment required under the old Cosmetics Directive.

“If a company wishing to export to Europe cannot do this in-house it will have to look to subcontract and this can cost a lot. There is a lot of work involved,”​ he told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com.

Electronic market notification ​

However, changes to the market notification system will make things much simpler for companies wishing to export to Europe.

From 2013, there will be a website run by the European Commission where the responsible person notifies when the product is put on the market.

This notification is valid to all EU countries, significantly cutting down on administration and paperwork, according to Bourgois.

“This system will be much easier, if a product is in five countries in Europe there is still only one notification,”​ he said.

Good Manufacturing Practices​

Another focus of the new regulation is product quality, and the new EU Cosmetics Regulation will require all manufacturers to adhere to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).

According to Bourgois, while improvements are being made adherence to GMP, this has not always been the case for all manufacturers.

Common problems with some manufacturers include unacceptably high levels of preservatives that are added to combat potential infection that could have occurred during manufacturing, he said.

Often it can be a balance between quality and profit, Bourgois claimed. It can be costly to apply GMP and so some companies in the past have tried to avoid it to cut costs.

As adherence to GMP is mandatory in the new regulation, it will be a focus of Bourgois’ workshop at the in-cosmetics show, which is to be held in Bangkok on the 2 – 4 November.