In September 2026, consumer products regulators asked harder questions about what goes into products and what companies say about them. Our Trends Radar picked up coordinated activity across the EU, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Codex, and the direction was consistent. Regulators want more evidence, more disclosure, and less reliance on legacy approvals. This month we cover three trends. First, cosmetics regulation is tightening and aligning across markets at the same time. Second, food additives are facing renewed scientific scrutiny, including the FDA’s proposal to make GRAS notices mandatory. Third, labeling and claims have become a global compliance priority. For brand owners, formulators and regulatory teams, a decision that is compliant in one market today may be out of step in another tomorrow.
Cosmetics Regulation Is Getting Stricter — and More Global — at Once
Cosmetics oversight has long been one of the most fragmented corners of consumer-products regulation, with every market keeping its own ingredient lists and its own logic. September 2026 suggests that era is ending. Cosmetics drew the widest jurisdictional spread of any consumer-products theme our Trends Radar tracked this month, and the activity pointed in two directions at once: tighter ingredient rules, and more structural alignment between regulators.
On the ingredient side, Brazil’s ANVISA advanced updated restricted- and prohibited-substance lists, China published mandatory national standard GB 7916-2026 setting general safety requirements, the Eurasian Economic Commission adopted amendments to its perfume-and-cosmetics technical regulation, and Canada expanded mandatory fragrance-allergen disclosure to 81 substances. Individually, each is a routine update. Together, they show major markets sharpening safety expectations in the same window, and increasingly referencing shared scientific approaches.
For brand owners and formulators, the practical challenge is a moving target in several places at once. A reformulation or relabeling decision made to satisfy one market may already be out of step with another by the time it reaches the shelf. The disclosure trend, in particular, Canada’s expanded allergen list is a preview of where others are heading, means labels now carry more regulated detail than ever. Building ingredient and label monitoring into a single cross-jurisdictional view is how leading teams stay ahead of reformulation cycles rather than scrambling to catch up.
Food Additives Face a New Era of Scientific Scrutiny
The question of what may go into food, and what may be allowed to remain in it is under fresh, coordinated review. Across September 2026, our Trends Radar tracked a cluster of official actions on additives and contaminants that spanned the European Union, North America, Asia-Pacific, and the Codex Alimentarius. The pattern is unmistakable: regulators are raising the evidentiary bar and narrowing the room for substances that reached the market under older, lighter regimes.
Several developments stand out. The European Commission’s Regulation (EU) 2026/196, tightening the rules on hydrocolloid additives came into application. EFSA published a fresh safety conclusion on the salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E 962), part of its ongoing re-evaluation program. In the United States, the FDA proposed making GRAS (“generally recognized as safe”) notices mandatory rather than voluntary a potentially significant change in how new food substances enter the U.S. market and adopted revised VICH guidance on testing for veterinary-drug residues in food.
If your portfolio relies on additives or is exposed to residue limits through ingredients or supply chains, the direction of travel is clear: more data, more documentation, and less tolerance for substances grandfathered in on historical use. The FDA’s GRAS proposal is especially worth watching, because it could reshape a pathway many U.S. food businesses have relied on for decades. Proactive teams are already auditing their additive portfolios against the tightening of science rather than waiting for a compliance letter.
Labeling and Claims: Transparency Becomes a Global Compliance Priority
What’s really in this product, and what does that claim actually mean? Regulators worldwide spent September 2026 answering those questions with new rules, and our Trends Radar flagged food and cosmetics labeling as the fastest-rising consumer-products theme of the month, with the broadest regional reach of any. The through-line is disclosure: consumers, and the authorities acting for them, increasingly expect precise, verifiable information on labels and in advertising.
The Codex Alimentarius adopted new guidelines on precautionary allergen labeling, giving national regulators a shared reference point that will ripple into domestic rules for years. The FDA’s proposal to make GRAS notices mandatory carries clear transparency implications for food ingredients. Brazil’s ANVISA opened a process to revise advertising rules for foods and medicines, and its regularization deadlines for supplements and weight-control foods took effect. And EFSA set a tolerable upper intake level for supplemental DHA, sharpening the science behind nutrition claims. Different markets, same instinct.
For consumer-products teams, the takeaway is that labeling has become a cross-functional compliance surface (spanning allergens, health and marketing claims, composition, and advertising) and it now changes faster than most packaging and artwork cycles can accommodate. A claim that’s compliant today may need substantiation, or a caveat, tomorrow. Folding label and claims monitoring into your core regulatory-intelligence workflow is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s how you avoid costly reprints, holds, and enforcement surprises.
