IFRA Engages new Laboratory for Compliance Program

05-11-2009: IFRA has appointed a new international testing laboratory, Eurofins Scientific, to carry out the third party independent analysis for the IFRA Compliance Program.

Eurofins’ Hamburg facility took over the testing early this year from the Institute Battelle Laboratories who closed their Swiss-based testing laboratory. Eurofins will carry out the third cycle of the IFRA Compliance Program covering the period May 2008 to April 2009.

The IFRA Compliance Program focuses on the safety of fragranced consumer products by ensuring that the IFRA Code of Practice is fully applied and adhered to. It involves the analysis of a variety of consumer products for the presence of fragrance ingredients regulated by IFRA Standards. The product analysis is defined in specific procedures and is coordinated completely independently by Eurofins following strict internal procedures to ensure confidentiality and impartiality in each step of the program.

The products are selected at random from the different categories - fragrance, cosmetics and toiletries and household and detergents - from ten randomly selected IFRA member countries each year. The first two cycles have shown 100% compliance. Not one single banned ingredient has been discovered above the reliable threshold of detection (0.01%).

The Compliance Program is an integral part of the IFRA Code of Practice, which is a comprehensive document that supports the IFRA commitment to provide products that are safe for use by the consumer and to the environment.

The Code of Practice applies to the manufacture and handling of all fragrance materials, for all types of applications and contains the full set of IFRA Standards. Abiding by the IFRA Code of Practice is a prerequisite for all fragrance supplier companies that are members of IFRA (either directly or through national associations). The majority of client companies (including producers of toiletries and household products) expect their fragrances to comply with IFRA Standards as set out in the Code.

Amendments to the Code, if required, are issued annually, based on new scientific developments. These contain either new usage restrictions or revisions of existing usage restrictions.