In February 2022, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in South Korea proposed amendments to the ‘Regulation on Safety Standards, etc. of Cosmetics’. This is the cosmetics policy enacted in 2015 to guide the manufacture and import of cosmetics and their safety control, it provides a framework for determining the raw materials that can not be used in cosmetics.

The Ministry proposes that persistent pollutants, some components of perfluorinated compounds and 1, 2, 4-trihydroxybenzene should be added to the list of prohibited ingredients while benzalkonium chloride should be prohibited from use as a preservative in spray-type products. It also proposes the maximum limit concentration of ingredients used as hair dye.

Furthermore, some prohibited ingredients are to be established as new exceptions. There are proposed management standards for CBD and THC and radioactive materials and fluorescent brightener 367 have new permissible limits.

The final date to comment on this notification is April 28, 2022.