FDA Cosmetic Registration Number Check

A supplier certificate PDF fails when a marketplace file check wants an FDA record and the order folder only holds a private printout. FDA cosmetic registration number verification separates the establishment identifier, the facility registration, and the product listing number, then names the label’s responsible person and the submission file still required.

A cosmetic facility registration product listing number search does not confirm a product listing number on a public FDA page. The December 2024 guidance says the product listing number will not be available for public disclosure under section 607(d) of the FD&C Act, and section 607(e) keeps brand names on a facility registration, and the facility number inside a listing, out of a Freedom of Information Act release. The remaining public check is the FEI. FDA’s registration page says it intends to use the FEI as the facility registration number, and the saved October 11, 2026 portal screen describes a logged-in lookup by firm name and address. The September 9, 2026 update says FDA does not issue certificates or exemption emails, and that neither number indicates FDA approval.

What Can You Verify in a Cosmetic Facility Registration or Product Listing Number Search?

Sort the string or PDF by the disclosure rule that applies to it. None of these rows is an FDA approval. FDA’s registration page, content current as of September 9, 2026, says cosmetic facility registration and cosmetic product listing are neither an approval program nor a promotional tool.

As of June 30, 2026, the registration page reports 16,398 unique active facility registrations and 1,298,361 unique active product listings since December 18, 2023. Those totals come from Cosmetics Direct, the Electronic Submission Gateway, SPL authoring software, and paper submissions. They are not a search result for one plant or one SKU.

Before a deposit, match the factory legal name to the account you pay in the guide to verifying a Chinese supplier. The same legal name should appear on the commercial invoice. Use the invoice and packing list cross-check for that comparison, and record the name match on the supplier scorecard.

What Does the FDA FEI Search Portal Check—and Where Does It Stop?

The saved portal screen from October 11, 2026 (HTTP 200) says the FEI Portal lets a user look up an FDA Establishment Identifier from a firm name and address, or validate the address of an FEI. The same screen requires an FDA account: Existing User, or New User Create Account. Information on what the portal searches is on the portal Help button and the FEI Portal FAQ, which this page does not reproduce. An FDA account login sits on that screen, and this page does not submit one.

On October 18, 2026, separate requests to https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/feiportal/index.cfm and to the login action on that host each returned a Page Not Found document of 17,737 bytes. That document is not a firm lookup. A Page Not Found response confirms nothing about a named factory, and it rejects nothing either. Leave the portal-result cell blank when the screen in front of you is that error page.

FDA’s registration page, still pointing at the portal, says the owner or operator needs an FEI before submitting the facility registration, and that FDA intends to use the FEI as the required facility registration number. The December 2024 guidance adds three limits:

1. A request for an FEI tied to cosmetic facility registration is typically processed in 7 to 10 business days. Rule of thumb: If the FEI request is under 7 business days old, that processing window is still open. A missing number in that window is a timing gap, not a completed registration and not a refusal.
2. A facility already assigned an FEI for other FDA business should use that same FEI and should not request a new one. The guidance’s examples of activities at a location include drug manufacturing and food packaging. An FEI match shows an establishment identifier on file. It does not show that a cosmetic facility registration under section 607(a) was submitted.
3. If no FEI is on file, the guidance says to email feiportal@fda.hhs.gov with the legal firm name, alternate names, physical address, designated mailing address, designated contact, activities at that location, any registration numbers for other FDA centers, former names, and previous addresses. This page does not fill those fields for a supplier.

Worked example. Renewal date = initial receipt date + 2 calendar years. FDA’s registration page states the arithmetic directly: if FDA received the initial registration on February 20, 2024, the renewal date is February 20, 2026. That line is FDA’s illustration of section 607(a)(2). It is not a result for any named supplier. Rule of thumb: If the renewal gap is over 2 years past the initial receipt date, the facility record is outside the biennial interval on that page.

The same page says renewals can be sent earlier than two years, including alongside a CDER annual establishment registration that falls sooner. In Cosmetics Direct the two renewal choices are COSMETIC PRODUCT FACILITY REGISTRATION - BIENNIAL RENEWAL when something changed, and COSMETIC PRODUCT FACILITY REGISTRATION - ABBREVIATED RENEWAL when nothing changed. Section 607(a)(5) is the abbreviated path. Section 607(a)(4), as restated in the December 2024 guidance, requires an update within 60 days of any change to the registration information, including a change that cancels the registration.

Takeaway: if the address on the saved portal screen is a trading office and the batch is filled somewhere else, stop the deposit and name the plant that actually fills or processes the cosmetic.

Why Are Cosmetic Product Listing Numbers and Brand Links Exempt from Public Disclosure?

The December 2024 guidance, section III.D, answers this in two statutory sentences. The product listing number will not be available for public disclosure (section 607(d) of the FD&C Act). Under section 607(e), FDA will not disclose, in response to a FOIA request under 5 U.S.C. 552, the brand names under which products manufactured or processed at the facility are sold, or, from a product listing, the facility registration number of the facility where the product is manufactured or processed.

The same paragraph says all other registration and listing information would be available for public disclosure consistent with FOIA, 21 CFR Part 20, and other federal law, and that FDA intends to make relevant information public to the extent the law allows. The saved FDA pages do not include a search box that takes a listing number, or a brand name, and returns the Chinese factory. The brand-to-factory link has to be read from the submission files held by the responsible person and the facility.

The October 18, 2026 download of the guidance PDF at https://www.fda.gov/media/170732/download returned a 10-byte “Not found” body and was not repeated. The sentences above are from a line-numbered extract of that 23-page PDF already saved from an earlier read (pages 7 through 13 in the extract). Appendix B questions 20 through 22 are marked on the guidance landing page as distributed for comment only, and those answers are absent from the saved extract, so this page does not restate them.

Why Does a Supplier’s “FDA Registration Certificate” Not Prove Compliance?

On September 9, 2026, FDA told cosmetic facilities, retailers, and responsible persons that it does not provide certificates or other documents to verify compliance for cosmetic product facility registration. The constituent update says FDA has received more inquiries from people who want a certificate, or a letter confirming they are exempt. It names ecommerce platforms, such as TikTok Shop, that ask sellers for proof of FDA registration or for an FDA letter or email confirming an exemption.

The update and the registration page list the same three documents FDA does not provide:

• a certificate as proof of facility registration or product listing
• a verification letter or email stating that a facility is registered or a product is listed
• a certificate, letter, or email confirming that a facility or responsible person is not required to register or list

There is no fee for a section 607 registration or listing. The December 2024 guidance, section III.H, says FDA does not charge one. The buyer-side loss is elsewhere: a deposit released before the FEI address matches the filling plant, a marketplace pause while a private certificate is the only file, and a reprint when the name on the label is not the party who can produce the listing. Pair the address check with a quality control inspection of the lot, and record the inspection on the quality control checklist.

Submission records that replace the certificate

Ask the facility or the responsible person for the channel that actually created the filing.

Cosmetics Direct is FDA’s SPL authoring tool. It validates the entry, saves the SPL, and submits it for FDA processing without a separate trip through the Electronic Submissions Gateway Next Generation. On February 11, 2026, FDA put REGISTRATION STATUS and RENEWAL DATE on the facility registration homepage. The facility contact, the FDA Direct account contact, the U.S. agent, any additional contact, and a paper submitter receive email reminders before the renewal date.

Electronic filers can also build the SPL in other authoring software, including SPL Xforms, and send it through ESG NextGen. The registration page says an ESG NextGen account is free and the application can take one to three weeks, so FDA urges people to apply well before a statutory deadline. Paper filers use Form FDA 5066 for the facility and Form FDA 5067 for the product listing. FDA says it strongly encourages electronic submission. Entities that are exempt can still submit voluntarily, and a voluntary submission still has to complete the fields the system marks mandatory.

How Do the Manufacturing Facility, Product Listing, and Label Responsible Person Connect?

The facility registration and the product listing are different filings. The listing is the document that cites the facility. The label is what decides who the responsible person is.

When the buyer’s brand is the name on the label, the buyer is the responsible person. A listing the factory filed for its own house brand uses the factory’s name and the house-brand product name. It does not cover a different name on a private-label box. Section 607(c)(4)(B) does allow one listing submission to cover multiple products with identical formulations, or formulations that differ only in colors, fragrances, flavors, or quantity of contents.

Category codes are a second cross-check, and only when both files are in hand. FDA’s category page, content current as of February 11, 2026, gives the worked code 06A2 for a rinse-off hair conditioner: 06 hair preparations (non-coloring), A hair conditioners, 2 rinse-off. A facility registration can carry both leave-on and rinse-off tertiary codes, for example 06A1 and 06A2, because one brand can include both. A single product listing can carry only one tertiary code, leave-on or rinse-off, not both. Bubble bath is FDA’s example of a code with no tertiary piece: 02B. Compare the code on the listing with the codes on the facility registration. Leave the worksheet cell blank until both files show a code.

When this does not apply: a cosmetic that is also a drug is not subject to the section 607 listing requirement. A facility that manufactures or processes only products that are also drugs is not subject to section 607 registration unless it also manufactures or processes cosmetics that are not drugs (section 613). MoCRA’s small-business exemption from registration and listing does not apply to products that regularly contact the mucus membrane of the eye, products that are injected, products intended for internal use, or products intended to alter appearance for more than 24 hours where the consumer does not remove them as part of customary use. Exemptions also exist for certain products and facilities already under drug and device requirements. FDA does not issue a letter confirming an exemption. This page does not decide whether a named supplier or SKU qualifies.

FDA can suspend a facility registration when a cosmetic from that facility, distributed in the United States, has a reasonable probability of causing serious adverse health consequences or death, and FDA has a reasonable belief that other products from the facility have a similar problem that cannot be isolated or is pervasive. Distribution of cosmetics from a suspended facility into U.S. commerce is a prohibited act. The pages saved here do not list named suspensions. Leave that cell blank.

For jars, pumps, and cartons around that label, the beauty and personal care sourcing pages cover the product family. They do not check an FEI.

Copyable Product, Facility, and Label Alignment Worksheet

Copy one row set per SKU, or per group that section 607(c)(4)(B) allows in a single listing. Leave the value cell blank when the document in front of you does not state it. Do not invent an FEI, a registration number, a listing number, a certificate number, or a pass result.

Log Specific Reasons When an Identifier Cannot Be Independently Confirmed

Write the blocker in the file. Do not convert a missing public hit into “FDA approved,” and do not convert it into a finding that the factory is unlawful. The follow-up is a document, not a guessed number.

Before the balance, a pre-shipment inspection in China can check that the printed responsible person, the ingredient panel, and the batch code match the approved artwork. The inspection does not confirm a listing number.

Method, Sources, and Scope Limits

Library search on October 18, 2026, did not return these FDA pages. Queries for cosmetic facility registration, Cosmetics Direct, and the registration-and-listing title, including an fda.gov host filter, hit food-facility pages, laboratory methods, and unrelated packaging articles. The SERP cache for this keyword was empty. No paid SERP pull was made.

The sentences above quote these saved FDA texts:

• Registration and Listing of Cosmetic Product Facilities and Products, content current as of September 9, 2026, saved October 17, 2026. That page carries the certificate statement, the February 11, 2026 REGISTRATION STATUS and RENEWAL DATE fields, the biennial example of February 20, 2024 to February 20, 2026, the active counts as of June 30, 2026, Form FDA 5066 and Form FDA 5067, and the FEI instruction.
• Constituent update of September 9, 2026, saved the same day.
• Cosmetics Direct page, content current as of September 9, 2026, and the category-code page, content current as of February 11, 2026, including the 06A2 and 02B examples.
• MoCRA overview, content current as of August 10, 2026, for the responsible-person listing duty and the 15-business-day serious adverse event report that includes the label.
• Guidance landing page, Docket FDA-2023-D-1716, December 2024. Appendix B questions 20 through 22 are distributed for comment only.
• Line-numbered extract of the guidance PDF for section III.D (public disclosure), the FEI reuse rule and the 7-to-10-business-day issuance note, product-listing fields under section 607(c), the 60-day amendment, the listing clocks, section 613, and the statement that there is no fee. The October 18, 2026 request for https://www.fda.gov/media/170732/download returned HTTP 404 with a 10-byte body and was not repeated.
• FEI Search Portal capture of October 11, 2026, HTTP 200, final URL the login screen, title “FEI Search Portal.” October 18, 2026 requests to the index URL and the login URL returned the Page Not Found document and were not repeated.

On October 18, 2026, the same one-attempt refetch of the registration page, the constituent update, the guidance landing page, Cosmetics Direct, the category page, the MoCRA page, the biennial-update URL, and the Form FDA 5066 and 5067 URLs also returned HTTP 404 with a 10-byte “Not found” body. Those refetches were not repeated. Quoted sentences come from the October 17, 2026 saves, which match the earlier successful fetches of those URLs.

This page does not decide a small-business exemption, does not classify a product as an OTC drug, and does not judge safety substantiation. More sourcing steps sit in the China sourcing guides. Updated October 2026.