The Cosmetics Rules 2020, devised by Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), lay out the structural procedures for licensing, labelling, importing, manufacturing, and selling cosmetic products.
As such, all the companies and stakeholders involved in the production and transportation of cosmetic products must seek approval from the Central Licensing Authority (CLA).
In essence, these rules act as guiding principles to ensure accountability, quality control, and safety in the manufacturing and marketing of cosmetic products. They further have a bearing on manufacturing units’ general upkeep and answerability. For instance, the licensee must store the details of the produced and processed batches of products for “three years after the date of expiry.”
One of the critical themes sourcing from these rules is the need for efficient traceability, and rightly so. Barcodes, QR codes, product-specific identification symbols, and batch numbers have gained significance in modern-day product management.
Customarily, when a product is manufactured, its details must be stored and preserved in a virtual logbook for a period. Such storage enables reliable audit control, compliance, and traceability from manufacture to market.
Naturally, any deviation from this norm would render the entire compliance and traceability system vulnerable, causing potential problems for the manufacturers and consumers.
Because cosmetic companies operate in a highly regulated industry, adopting traceability-enabling technology is a step in the right direction for maintaining product compliance in real-time.
Verify Authenticity
No longer would consumers be cheated with fake labels claiming bogus star ratings. With the mobile app, any consumer can scan the affixed QR code to view the authenticity certified by the BEE. The QR code will be impossible to be tampered with and the BEE database will be updated with the unique QR code of each appliance right from the time it is manufactured by the brand. Hence, only original and authentic products will be labeled with the QR code which ultimately empowers consumers to have more choices of real products with real and proven power consumption benefits.
Cosmetic Rules 2020: The Proliferating Inclination Towards Traceability
Under the Eleventh Schedule in the Cosmetics Rules 2020, CDSCO talks about the need for appropriate maintenance and validation of equipment employed in the laboratory. The regulatory body further mentions that all such equipment/material “shall be traceable to an agency authorised by Government of India or any other international body.”
In the following sections, CDSCO elucidates the best practices to keep the products and associated equipment traceable in the laboratory. The emphasis is on documenting every aspect of the production line via identification codes. Such codes are needed for establishing the complete chain of custody of the product throughout its life cycle.
Simply put, if the provenance of the product is traced well, legal and ethical issues can be averted. And this is achievable via high-tech data management systems, which effectively correlate data across disparate platforms.
In addition to this, such technology also provides details of ingredients used in each batch of products at regular intervals. This is essential for maintaining traceability across the entire supply chain.
The Growing Prominence of QR Codes
At the start of 2022, the Union Health Ministry necessitated using QR codes on drug packages to prevent counterfeits from circulating through the market. This makes all the more sense for cosmetic companies, as they too must do the same to prevent their intellectual property from being infringed upon.
In this line of thought, the need for integrated pharmaceutical and cosmetic product-level traceability must be acknowledged. And the adoption of QR code technology for this purpose would be a step in the right direction for the following reasons:
Data Aggregation Across Every Touchpoint
When it comes to using QR codes, their “scan-ability” is mentioned as one of their most significant characteristics. This means that these codes can be scanned via smartphones, thereby providing a real-time view of the production and inventory details.
For instance, when a manufacturer gets in touch with a distributor to know about the progress of sales and shipment, they are also informed about which batches are sold out and which batches need to be reordered.
Similarly, when a retailer contacts the manufacturer to know about their stock, they get to know which products are sold out, which are available and what the manufacturer needs to restock. In fact, consumers can also scan the codes on packaging to get the details of the cosmetic products they wish to buy.
This correlation of data across disparate systems guarantees accountability and transparency in the entire manufacturing chain. It means getting access to accurate and timely data pertaining to inventory, sales, and consumer preferences for companies.
Seamless Front-End Interaction
Touchless QR codes “have emerged as a permanent tech fixture from the coronavirus pandemic,” writes New York Times journalist Erin Woo. In essence, using QR code technology in the cosmetics industry works to engage consumers on a more personal level.
An example would be using QR codes on the product to lead the customers to the company’s website, wherein they can access more information about the products. Alternatively, customers can also scan the codes on their smartphones to directly refer to the product page of a particular brand on, say, Amazon or Flipkart.
In that light, the benefits go beyond the convention of the traditional manufacturer-distributor chain. This kind of “direct” interaction adds an extra dimension to the business model wherein manufacturers can keep the customers informed about their products on priority.
Conclusion
No doubt, cosmetic companies deal with a highly perishable commodity, but that does not mean they cannot trace their products. Contrarily, customers expect greater accountability from cosmetic companies nowadays-and rightly so.
Adopting innovative traceability technologies can effectively minimise post-sales complaints and incidences of counterfeiting while simultaneously retaining customer trust.
As it stands, QR (quick response) codes are a robust method of achieving this objective. This kind of data management technology can ensure greater traceability and act as an effective tool for customer engagement.
Implementing such a solution at this point will be beneficial for the stakeholders involved, not to mention the industry at large.
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