Harness our success

The fragrance industry already has a long and successful track record of prioritizing safety and sustainability, while allowing for innovation and creativity in fragrance formulation. We believe that future legislation should recognize this foundation and build upon existing voluntary industry initiatives. These industry rules are already a valuable asset that policymakers can draw upon to provide added value to future EU policy design. 

The industry has advanced the safe use of fragrance ingredients, notably through the establishment of its Code of Practice and the IFRA Standards over the past five decades. These Standards are grounded in a rigorous risk assessment methodology, conducted by the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM), and that is constantly evolving in the face of new science and expertise. 

These Standards are a successful example of the safe management of substances for specific product categories. Those initiatives are complemented by the comprehensive multi-stakeholder International Dialogue for the Evaluation of Allergens (IDEA), facilitated by IFRA and supported by the European Commission to foster dialogue for the evaluation of allergens together with academia, industry and leading scientists. 

These initiatives encompass dedicated workstreams to apply alternatives to animal testing in risk assessments, vital to achieve Europe’s ambition for a transition towards animal-free legislation. To reinforce the sector’s responsible approach on safety, since 2022, a pluri-annual ‘fragrance ingredients surveillance study’ is currently scaled up to be run in about 10 clinics across Europe, to provide learnings on trends in contact allergy and related exposure conditions.

The European Union possesses one of the world’s most comprehensive regulatory frameworks, and we are committed to assisting in further developing this already substantial science-based structure, ensuring it remains practical for implementation. 

Together, the fragrance and flavor industries have already worked on supporting this existing basis with the IFRA-IOFI Sustainability Charter. The Charter seeks to aid companies of all sizes optimize their sustainability efforts, taking a life-cycle approach to products up and down the sectors’ value chains. This includes 17 specific commitments such as sustainable sourcing of raw materials, reducing carbon footprint in production processes, and minimizing waste via better integration of circular economy principles. More than 135 companies pledged to adhere to those commitments. 

As outlined in the Charter, green chemistry has an important role to play. As such, IFRA has introduced a Green Chemistry Compass. This tool, which is publicly available, aids our members in navigating towards the conscious selection of greener, safer, and more sustainable raw materials.