On August 6, 2026, the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) issued the mandatory national standard "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements" (GB 7916-2026). The standard was organized and drafted by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), will take effect on January 1, 2028, and will replace the "Hygienic standard for cosmetics" (GB 7916-1987).
The standard consolidates existing technical requirements, unifies and standardizes terminology and definitions, strengthens the control of high-risk products such as children's cosmetics, and strictly controls risk substances, helping to build a new pattern of cosmetics standard management in China.
On the same day, the NMPA released the official interpretation of this mandatory national standard. CIRS Group has summarized and organized it below for your reference. The full text is as follows:
I. What is the revision background and significance of "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements"?
In recent years, under the guidance and regulation of the Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation and other laws and regulations, China’s cosmetics industry has developed rapidly. According to statistics, in 2025, the market size of China’s cosmetics industry exceeded RMB 1.1 trillion for the first time, a year-on-year increase of 2.8%. The number of cosmetic production enterprises surged from over 70 in 1980 to over 6,000 in 2026. China has become the world’s largest beauty consumer market.
With the rapid development of the industry, cosmetics have become an important daily consumer product that meets people’s needs for beauty and a high-quality life. The NMPA earnestly implements General Secretary Xi Jinping’s "Four Strictest" requirements, upholds safeguarding cosmetics safety with "the most rigorous standards", organized a comprehensive revision of the original national standard "Cosmetics Hygiene Standard", and formed the new national standard "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements", marking the elevation of cosmetics standards from "hygiene standards" to "safety standards".
As the first mandatory national standard for cosmetics organized and formulated by the drug regulatory authority, "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements" provides the foundational safety standards that must be observed for cosmetics production and operation. Next, the NMPA will actively promote the construction of a new "one body, two wings" pattern of cosmetics standard management — with the "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements" and other series of national standards as the main body, and the Safety and Technical Standards for Cosmetics and industry standards as the two wings — providing important support for safeguarding public cosmetics safety and serving the national strategies of "Healthy China" and "Quality Powerhouse".
II. What principles were followed in the revision of "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements"?
The revision of "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements" mainly follows the following five principles:
- First, upholding law-based compliance. This standard is strictly based on the provisions of the Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation and its supporting departmental rules and normative documents, and remains coordinated and consistent with current regulatory policy directions.
- Second, upholding inheritance and development. This standard systematically reviews and structurally reorganizes the mature and reliable general cosmetic safety technical requirements in the Safety and Technical Standards for Cosmetics that have been tested through years of practice, and remains coordinated and connected with "Instructions for Use of Consumer Products - Part 3: General Labeling of Cosmetics" (GB 5296.3).
- Third, upholding risk-based grading. Based on differentiated risk assessment results such as product exposure routes, user groups, and application sites, this standard sets corresponding safety technical indicators. For higher-risk products such as children's cosmetics and cosmetics applied to the skin around the eyes, eyelashes, and lips, it sets stricter safety technical indicators such as microbial limits.
- Fourth, upholding international convergence. This standard draws on the advanced concepts of the EU Cosmetics Regulation (EC No 1223/2009) regarding product safety responsibility, the safety assessment framework, and trace substance management, and connects with international standards such as "Cosmetics - Microbiology - Microbial Limits" (ISO 17516:2014) at the technical level of microbial indicators, enhancing the international compatibility of the standard.
- Fifth, upholding economic practicality. During the formulation process, this standard fully investigated the industry’s technical level and cost feasibility to ensure that the set technical indicators are scientific and reasonable, and are supported by corresponding test methods, facilitating industry implementation.
III. What provisions does "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements" make in safeguarding the cosmetics safety baseline?
In safeguarding the cosmetics safety baseline, this standard mainly makes four provisions:
- First, within the framework of current cosmetics management regulations, it organically integrates and improves the scattered technical requirements such as the Safety and Technical Standards for Cosmetics, and clarifies, in the form of a mandatory national standard, the full-chain safety requirements for cosmetics from raw materials to products.
- Second, it comprehensively standardizes cosmetics-related terms and definitions, such as: prohibited substances, restricted raw materials, UV filters and colorants among permitted raw materials, and packaging materials, more scientifically defining the connotation and boundaries of cosmetics quality and safety management.
- Third, it sets stricter technical standards for children's cosmetics and the like. The total aerobic microbial count limits for children's cosmetics and cosmetics applied to the skin around the eyes, eyelashes, and lips are 10 times stricter than those for ordinary products, exercising strict control over high-risk products.
- Fourth, it strictly controls risk substances. It sets strict limits for harmful substances such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium, and comprehensively revises and standardizes the list of prohibited substances in cosmetics. At the same time, it leaves room for the list of prohibited substances to be adjusted in step with the development of scientific research, clarifying that when the drug regulatory department under the State Council issues relevant announcements updating the list of prohibited substances and their requirements, the relevant content of this list shall be subject to the updated content of the announcement.
IV. What provisions does "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements" make in reducing burdens and increasing efficiency for industry development?
Addressing practical issues of concern to the industry, this standard implements the risk management concept and mainly makes four provisions to reduce burdens and increase efficiency for the industry:
- First, it clarifies the general safety requirements for cosmetics with a unified standard. Previously, the general safety requirements for cosmetics were scattered across multiple standards and technical specifications. This standard is the national mandatory standard with the highest legal effect; its issuance and implementation are of great significance for unifying and standardizing the core technical requirements of cosmetics safety, effectively reducing enterprises’ compliance costs.
- Second, it scientifically and objectively stipulates the management requirements for prohibited substances. It defines prohibited substances in cosmetics as substances that should not be used as cosmetic raw materials. At the same time, it clarifies that when it is technically unavoidable for prohibited substances to be introduced into cosmetics as impurities, those with national limits shall comply with those limits; for those without limits, a safety assessment shall be conducted to ensure no harm to human health. The above provisions clarify that "prohibited" does not equal "shall not be detected", providing a basis for the scientific judgment of the risks posed by prohibited substances in cosmetics.
- Third, it precisely controls cosmetics safety risks. This standard stipulates the limit requirements that 8 harmful substances such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium shall comply with. To improve the precision of risk prevention and control, the standard proposes that for methanol, 1,4-dioxane, asbestos, and benzene, when specific raw materials that may introduce these harmful substances are used in cosmetics, attention should be paid to the relevant limit requirements of the product. For products that do not use specific raw materials, the testing items that must be conducted before marketing can be set more targetedly, reducing unnecessary product testing costs.
- Fourth, it sets a reasonable transition period. This standard is scheduled to be implemented on January 1, 2028; cosmetics produced or imported before the implementation of the standard may continue to be sold until the end of their use period.
CIRS Reminder
The implementation of this mandatory national standard "Cosmetics - General Safety Requirements" achieves the upgrade of cosmetics supervision from hygiene control to full-dimensional safety control, and sets brand-new requirements for full-chain compliance covering cosmetics raw materials, production, and finished products.
Currently, the standard provides an adequate transition period and will officially take effect on January 1, 2028. It is recommended that all cosmetics production, import, and sales enterprises align with the new regulation in advance — review product formulas, testing items, and compliance systems, optimize quality control processes, reduce compliance risks, and smoothly adapt to the new standard’s regulatory requirements.
If you need any assistance or have any questions, please get in touch with us via service@cirs-group.com.
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