The following updates to WERCSmart are available as of the beginning of business January 20, 2022:
California fragrance and flavor - my reports
Effective January 1, 2022, California enacted the Cosmetic Fragrance and Flavor Act for specific health & beauty products. California SB 312 and 484 have been considered with this update.
In general, the regulation indicates:
For all cosmetic products sold in California, the product-label owner (manufacturer, distributor and/or packer) must provide to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) a list of all products that contain any ingredients known, or suspected, to cause cancer, developmental, or other reproductive harm. These ingredients are identified in several designated lists generated by CA Prop. 65, NTP, IARC, and EPA. This reporting obligation applies to presence of an ingredient in any component of a product (primary formulation or any embedded third-party component).
In WERCSmart, indications per registration will be provided, as follows:
Sufficient for screening
Contains no generic ingredients in the registration’s formula by using specific ingredients or having 3rd party ingredients included.
Insufficient for screening
Contains generic ingredients.
WERCSmart will not be making reporting submissions to the State of California, but will provide the registrant the ability to generate a report listing applicable registrations and their “sufficient” or “insufficient” statuses.
The new report is known as the California Safe Cosmetic Program Assessment.
In addition to the new report, when creating a registration, the sustainability hint, when generic ingredients are used, has been revised to include information about the impact on this California regulation.
Canada consumer regulations - batteries and battery-containing products
When a battery registration, or a battery-containing product registration, is being directed to a retailer located in Canada (i.e. Canadian Tire), there is a new UPC-level requirement for a product label to be included for each UPC being provided to the Canadian retailer.
Existing product registrations that have GTIN/UPCs indicated for Canadian Tire will encounter auto-recertification of the UPC data when either forwarding to a new retailer or amending the UPCs on the registration. At the time of auto-recertification you will be required to provide the new UPC-level product label for each UPC associated to Canadian Tire.
Product registration usability
In a continuing effort to improve the usability of WERCSmart when registering product data, we have revised areas within the registration process to provide more clarity of the data requirement as well as guidance and where to locate some of the data (i.e. Flash Point) when you have a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) available.
Upcoming improvements
State pesticide data
The process for registering state pesticide registration data will be streamlined to improve.
The revision will include:
- Selection of state status
- Registered
- The product is registered in the specific state
- State expiration date entry is required
- Restricted/not registered
- The state does not allow the sale of the product (registered); or
- The product is chosen by the account not to be registered in the specific state
- No expiration date entry will be needed as there is a default of not applicable
- No state registration required
- The state does not require registration of this product type per their own state regulations
- No expiration date will be needed as the default will be not applicable
- Pending state registration
- The state registration has been submitted but the finalization is not yet determined by the state regulatory agency
- No expiration date will be needed until such time the selection is changed to "Registered"
- Registered
- State registration numbers will no longer be collected for each individual state