FDA Stops Voluntary Cosmetic Registration Program (VCRP)

By Percefoni Doufou-Shafiq, Ph.D, BSc, MSc, senior regulatory specialist, Supply Chain Team, UL Solutions 

On March 27, 2023, the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made an announcement on their website that, from that date on, it is no longer accepting submissions to the Voluntary Cosmetic Registration Program (VCRP). The voluntary program had been created to encourage cosmetic companies to register their facilities and provide product information, despite no legal requirements from previous cosmetic regulations. The enactment of the Cosmetics Regulations Act of 2022 (MoCRA) on December 29, 2022, made the previously voluntary registration actions mandatory (amongst other changes it brought forth). At the time MoCRA was enacted, there was no clarification about the fate of the VCRP program. 

Understanding that the MoCRA requirements will result in large volumes of registrations, the FDA has decided to create a new system for the required registrations. Until the new system has been rolled out, it has been requested that cosmetic companies wait to register with the FDA as the information in the VCRP will not be transferred to the program being developed. 

For more information, please see UL Solutions’ previously published article on this topic located here.

Sources

Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022
FDA - Cosmetics
FDA VCRP Announcement
UL MoCRA Regulatory Update Article