Burma’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised consumers to use only reputable foreign-made cosmetics because not all beauty products in an unregulated market have been tested.
A wide array of beauty products — some made in Burma and most imported from China and Thailand — are available to Burmese consumers. But FDA director-general Khin Chit told DVB that her agency is unable to test all the available products due to a lack of staff.
She added that the FDA has no power to control the sale of untested cosmetic products that are brought into the market with official import licenses.
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Dr. Thazin Yi Hlaing, deputy director of the FDA’s Cosmetics and Drugs department, said that the administration recently started testing skin-whitening beauty products. She advised consumers to check labels on anything they buy and to choose only the products that meet international standards.
“Before buying a product, consumers must check if they meet the labelling requirements and if there are ingredients in it that they are allergic to,” said Dr Thazin Yi Hlaing, adding that cosmetic products do not require registration in order to be sold.
“A company will let us know when they start selling a certain cosmetic product in the market and we will inform them if we find something unsuitable in their products so that they can take it back off the shelves,” she said.
In March this year, the FDA announced the names of nine Thai cosmetics brands that were found to be containing chemicals unsafe to use.
