Beauty Clinic Raid, BPOM Finds 50,000 Dangerous Cosmetic Products

The Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) conducted a surprise inspection of 731 beauty clinics across various regions of Indonesia from February 19-23, 2024. These clinics were suspected of selling cosmetics and skincare products with blue labels containing hazardous substances.

"From the results, 33% of beauty clinics were found to be selling/using substandard cosmetics," said BPOM Deputy for Supervision of Traditional Medicines, Health Supplements, and Cosmetics, Mohamad Kashuri, in a virtual press conference on Wednesday (April 3, 2024).

A total of 51,791 beauty products worth Rp2.8 billion were confiscated by the BPOM.

The most numerous hazardous products were those without distribution permits, totaling 37,998 products or 73.4% of the total findings.

Second most numerous were products with hazardous ingredients, amounting to 5,937 products or 11.5%.

"Our regulations stipulate that cosmetics must not contain hazardous substances such as hydroquinone, clindamycin antibiotic, retinoic acid, fluocinolone, and steroids," Kashuri stated.

Furthermore, 5,277 expired beauty products (10.2%), 2,475 non-compliant blue-labeled skincare products (4.8%), and 104 illegal beauty injection products (0.2%) were also found.

BPOM defines blue labels as those on skincare products containing strong or prescription drugs requiring a doctor's supervision, mass-produced, and labeled with blue labels.

"Certainly, all confiscated goods will be destroyed, and the clinics will be sanctioned and prohibited from selling and producing these goods again," Kashuri said.