A procurement manager screening an overseas filler or serum manufacturer will eventually type the supplier's name into a search box and expect a green checkmark. That checkmark does not exist. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not certify, approve, or rank cosmetic manufacturers the way buyers of medical devices or drug ingredients might assume. What exists is a facility registration obligation under MoCRA — a different instrument with different evidence, and most supplier "verification" advice online conflates the two.
TL;DR
FDA does not publish a searchable supplier registry, so you cannot look up a manufacturer by name. Verify MoCRA compliance through three channels your supplier controls: their Cosmetics Direct home screen, their FEI number, and their ISO 22716 certificate. None is an "FDA approval," and none is forgeable as easily as a certificate PDF.
Why "FDA Approved" Is the Wrong Question
Most buyer-facing checklists open with a search step that cannot be performed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration publishes only aggregate counts of registered establishments — 16,398 cosmetic facilities as of 2026-06-30 — and offers no public lookup keyed to a company name. A procurement lead cannot open a government page, type a supplier's legal name, and read back a registration status. Anyone promising that path is describing a system that does not exist, and the same gap applies to the Cosmetics Direct portal: it is a filing tool requiring an FDA Direct account, where facility owners log in to manage their own registrations. Brand owners cannot use it to look up suppliers.
The FDA registers cosmetic manufacturing facilities; it does not issue a product or facility "approval" certificate for cosmetics. A supplier who presents an "FDA approval certificate" is showing you a document the agency never produced. What MoCRA actually creates is a registration and listing obligation under the FD&C Act, renewed on a biennial cycle — every two years — per FD&C Act section 607(a)(2). The biennial cycle is defined on FDA's MoCRA page, and the renewal date moves whether or not the facility changed hands. Facility owners manage their own records through FDA's registration and listing page; the system is built for the registrant, not for the buyer auditing them.
Distributing a product from a facility whose MoCRA registration has been suspended is prohibited, and the two-year renewal clock means a clean record in 2025 says nothing about standing in 2027.
Registration is a standing obligation, not a one-time badge. The distinction matters because the three checks below each measure a different slice of that obligation — and none of them is the "approval" a supplier's sales deck implies.
Three Checks You Can Actually Run Today
You cannot outsource verification to a government search box, but you can run three checks through documents your supplier already controls. The diagnostic table maps each check to what it confirms and, just as important, what it does not.
| Check | What you request | What it proves | What it does NOT prove | Forge-resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A — Cosmetics Direct home screen | Live account view showing REGISTRATION STATUS and RENEWAL DATE | The facility's own registration is active and when it next lapses | That the specific product is listed or safe to use | Highest — screen metadata is data the supplier does not control |
| B — FEI number lookup | The 10-digit FEI number, confirmed in FEI Search Portal | The entity exists in FDA's facility index | That it is currently registered for cosmetics — FEI spans drugs, devices, and food | Medium — existence is not registration |
| C — ISO 22716 certificate | Certificate, then CB accreditation in the ANAB directory | A certification body assessed the quality system | MoCRA registration status — GMP certification and facility registration are separate tracks | High, but only with the two-step check |
Check A is the angle most competitor articles miss. On 2026-02-11, Cosmetics Direct added REGISTRATION STATUS and RENEWAL DATE fields directly to the facility registration home screen. Ask the supplier to log in and show that screen live — it is materially harder to forge than a "registration certificate" PDF, because the PDF is a document they can generate while the home-screen view is data they do not control.
Check B runs through the FEI Search Portal, which confirms whether an entity already holds an FEI number. An existing FEI number means the entity is in FDA's index — not that its cosmetic facility registration is current. The FEI system spans drugs, devices, and food, so a hit there is a starting point, not a verdict on cosmetics standing.
Check C requires two steps that buyers often collapse into one. ISO 22716 certificates are issued by certification bodies such as SGS, TÜV, and Eurofins — not by ANAB. ANAB is an accreditor. Verify the certificate with the issuing CB first, then confirm the CB's own accreditation in the ANAB directory. Skipping the second step leaves you trusting a logo that may not sit under a live accreditation.
What to Collect Before You Sign
Before any deposit changes hands, consolidate the evidence from the three checks into a single supplier file. The rules below define what belongs in it; for a fuller pre-payment controls list, see the guidance on before you pay a deposit.
Rule 1 — Capture the live screen, not the PDF. Store the Cosmetics Direct home-screen view showing REGISTRATION STATUS and RENEWAL DATE. Note the capture date; the renewal field is only meaningful against today's date, not against the day the supplier first sent it.
Rule 2 — Record the FEI number and its lookup result. Keep the FEI Search Portal result showing the entity name matches the supplier of record. A mismatch between the FEI entity and your contract counterpart is a flag, not a formality to wave through.
Rule 3 — File both certificate and accreditation. Keep the ISO 22716 certificate and the ANAB directory screenshot confirming the CB. One without the other is incomplete evidence, and incomplete evidence is what suspended-registration surprises are made of.
Rule 4 — Map renewal dates to your production window. A facility renewing in March 2027 is fine for a Q1 run but risky for a program shipping through Q4 2027. Tie the RENEWAL DATE to your launch calendar, not to the supplier's sales pitch.
Rule 5 — Separate the tracks in your own notes. MoCRA registration, FEI index membership, and ISO 22716 certification are three different instruments. A supplier strong on one can be silent on another, and your file should show all three explicitly rather than assume one covers the rest.
For buyers building a private-label line, the verification file above becomes part of the supplier qualification record. If you are evaluating a manufacturer for custom OEM/ODM client solutions, fold these checks into the qualification stage rather than the post-award stage — and note that custom production runs typically start above 2,000 units, so the qualification work amortizes across a larger order rather than a trial order.
Send your supplier's FDA details to Camellia Labs and we'll run a supplier FDA-registration verification.
