Cosmetic product safety is a shared concern among manufacturers, suppliers, regulators, and consumers. Within this context, ISO 22716 stands out as a key standard, offering tailored Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines for the cosmetics industry. Covering everything from raw material intake to production, storage, and final delivery, ISO 22716 helps organizations of all sizes manage quality, reduce risks, and align with global standards and sustainable development goals.
What is ISO 22716?
ISO 22716 provides guidance on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for cosmetic products. The standard also constitutes the practical development of the quality assurance concept. It does this by offering advice on managing factors that could impact product quality to organizations of all sizes and complexity, from receipt to shipment, including production and storage.
Key benefits
Certification follows the successful completion of an audit and allows:
- Your organization to identify and control the human, technical and administrative factors that can affect product quality, thus reducing risk
- Essential quality assurance elements to be implemented and maintained, in a continuous improvement process
- GMP elements to be integrated with other standards, such as ISO 9001
- You to demonstrate the adoption of essential GMP relating to cosmetic activities
- Possible alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth)
The guidelines essentially have five core elements
- The cosmetics Quality Management System (QMS) and organization
- Premises and equipment
- Product realization and materials management
- Deviations, complaints and
- Continuous improvement
Addressing Key ISO 22716 Challenges for Effective Implementation
As the cosmetics industry evolves, there's a growing shift toward natural and herbal ingredients, especially to meet the needs of Thailand’s aging population, which is expected to become a major demographic group. Manufacturers must not only comply with GMP standards but also adapt to these emerging trends.
Each standard or guideline presents its own challenges. To maximize the benefits of ISO 22716 implementation, it’s essential to address the following key considerations from the outset:
- Understanding the requirements
- The independence of the quality unit from the manufacturing units
- Clarification of responsibilities of all personnel for manufacturing and quality
- Supplier selection, evaluation and re-evaluation of raw materials, components and packaging materials
- Evaluation and audits of subcontractors and suppliers
Key ISO 22716 elements
The guidelines combine general quality management principles and typical elements of cosmetic product GMP with a risk management-based approach, including:
- Personnel
- Premises
- Equipment
- Raw and packaging materials
- Production, including packaging and labeling
- Finished products
- Quality-control laboratory
- Waste
- Subcontracting
- Deviations
- Complaints and recalls
- Change control
- Internal audit
- Documentation
Key implementation considerations
ISO 22716 supports organizations that wish to follow advice to manage the human, technical and administrative factors that affect product quality. GMP follows the principles of sound scientific judgment and risk assessment to produce cosmetic products that meet defined characteristics.
You must consider:
- The quality unit to create an independent decision-making process from manufacturing/operations
- Management support and encouragement concerning GMP compliance
- Enabling manufacturing and quality-control laboratory staff to report irregularities to allow for swift action in case of deviations
- The selection of raw material suppliers and supplies used for manufacturing cosmetic products, following approved quality procedures
- Reprocessing that follows defined/established steps when regular and distinct methods do not yield the expected results
- Following ISO 22716 needs, so a supplier or subcontractor qualification program is in place
- Presenting an appropriate risk-based approach for a third-party qualification program
How we can help
Audits against customer-specific criteria
Our audits can be customized for all industries within the global supply chain to verify an organization’s ability to meet criteria, including quality, consumer safety and occupational health and safety.
Covering suppliers & codes of practice
Supplier/vendor/co-packer/licensee assessments can monitor suppliers’ adherence to your requirements and/or contractual agreements. Products can also be verified as meeting quality, consumer safety, environmental, occupational and/or social responsibility requirements, protecting your brand and values. Auditing against your code of practice can monitor your network’s compliance with what is defined within it, ensuring brand protection and that practices remain consistent throughout the network.
The customer-specific audit process
- Step A – agree audit requirements and contract
- Step B – conduct audit
- Step C – issue audit report
- Step D – ongoing monitoring audit (based on agreement)
Why our ISO 22716 services?
With expertise in all major industries, we help customers across the world to operate more sustainably by improving quality and productivity, reducing risk, verifying compliance and increasing speed to market.
What we offer
An audit against ISO 22716 from SGS will help your organization to stand out from the crowd by supporting your product quality assurance and control. Our auditors know the characteristics of cosmetic products and can apply this to all critical steps during assessment, from acceptation of raw materials to product distribution. Our laboratories offer integrated customer-specific solutions for safety compliance and can assist you in controlling product quality, including its raw materials, packaging and compliance with cosmetics industry regulations.
About SGS
SGS is the world’s leading Testing, Inspection and Certification company. We operate a network of over 2,500 laboratories and business facilities across 115 countries, supported by a team of 99,500 dedicated professionals. With over 145 years of service excellence, we combine the precision and accuracy that define Swiss companies to help organizations achieve the highest standards of quality, compliance and sustainability.
Our brand promise – when you need to be sure – underscores our commitment to trust, integrity and reliability, enabling businesses to thrive with confidence. We proudly deliver our expert services through the SGS name and trusted specialized brands, including Brightsight, Bluesign, Maine Pointe and Nutrasource.
SGS is publicly traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker symbol SGSN (ISIN CH1256740924, Reuters SGSN.S, Bloomberg SGSN:SW).
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