This document provides guidance to industry and other stakeholders (e.g., consumer interest
groups, academia, other regulatory groups) on FDA’s current thinking concerning what
constitutes Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) for cosmetics. It is intended to assist industry
and other stakeholders in identifying the standards and issues that can affect the quality of
cosmetic products.
This guidance revises the “Cosmetic Good Manufacturing (GMP) Guidelines/Inspection
Checklist” by updating it to set forth current practice, and clarify certain topic areas based on
recent experience. In addition, as part of an international harmonization effort with the
International Cooperation on Cosmetic Regulations (ICCR), FDA (or we) agreed to consider the
current International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard for cosmetic GMPs (ISO
22716:2007) when revising this guidance. We reviewed ISO 22716 and decided to incorporate,
modify, or exclude specific aspects of it into this guidance based on our experience.
FDA’s guidance documents, including this guidance, do not establish legally enforceable
responsibilities. Instead, guidances describe our current thinking on a topic and should be
viewed only as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited.
The use of the word should in FDA guidances means that something is suggested or
recommended, but not required.