CDSCO warns against two Pakistan-made fairness creams found with excess heavy metals

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation has told the public not to buy or use two skin-lightening creams labelled Made in Pakistan: Goree Beauty Cream and Chandni Whitening Cream. A Cosmetics Division notice dated 8 September, circulated more widely on 15 September, says both products lack an import registration certificate and contain heavy metals above Indian limits.

Drug Controller General of India Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi said a licence from the state licensing authority is required to manufacture cosmetics for sale, and that imported cosmetics must be registered with the Central Licensing Authority. Neither cream has that paper. India already bans the direct import of goods from Pakistan. The jars were nonetheless offered on Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho and Snapdeal, according to market checks reported with the alert.

What the tests showed

CDSCO sampled the two brands and sent them for analysis. The public note does not print the exact microgram-per-kilogram figures for each metal. It says the levels exceed specified limits and may cause toxic effects. Whitening creams sold without registration in South Asia have, in earlier official and academic tests, carried mercury and lead. Those two metals are the usual reason a fairness cream fails a heavy-metal screen. The present notice does not name the metal in each jar. It names the risk class.

The DCGI has ordered shops, distributors and individuals to stop sale, distribution and advertising of both products. State and Union Territory drug controllers, and CDSCO zonal, sub-zonal and port offices, have been told to inspect and pull stock off shelves.

How a banned import reaches a cart

A customs ban stops a declared consignment at a port. It does not stop a seller on an e-commerce platform from listing a jar that arrived through a third country or a suitcase route. Marketplaces treat cosmetics as fast-moving consumer goods. Registration certificates are not checked at the same intensity as a drug import. That gap is how Goree and Chandni sat in search results after the trade ban.

Raghuvanshi's note therefore runs in two directions. One is the buyer: do not purchase, do not use if already purchased. The other is the enforcement chain: state inspectors and platform compliance teams have to take the listings down and the physical stock off the shelf. Without the second step the first is only a press note.

What buyers should treat as the signal

Any fairness cream that claims a Made in Pakistan origin and has no Indian import registration is now in the same bucket as these two names. The notice also warns against similarly named products. Copycat labels are common in this category. A jar that looks like Goree and is sold under a close spelling is not safer than the named brand.

People who already used the cream and have a rash, numbness or other skin change need a clinic, not another jar. The regulator has not published a helpline unique to this alert. Ordinary dermatology and the existing pharmacovigilance routes are the path.

The larger fact is administrative. A product that is illegal to import still found a retail channel large enough to need a national notice. Closing that channel is now a test for the platforms named in the coverage and for the state drug controllers who have to walk the warehouses.