Publicaciones

This Report, crea­ted jointly with IOFI, show­ca­ses the sig­ni­fi­cant pro­gress dri­ven by IFRA and its mem­bers in embed­ding sus­tai­na­bi­lity throughout the fra­gran­ce value chain — from res­pon­si­ble sour­cing and cli­ma­te action to work­pla­ce well­being, pro­duct safety, and trans­pa­rent reporting.

The­se are all the gui­dan­ce docu­ments for the 51^st amend­ments to the IFRA Standards

On 11 January 2025, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion published its Com­mis­sion work pro­gram­me 2025 outli­ning key prio­ri­ties, inclu­ding ​“A new plan for Europe’s sus­tai­na­ble pros­pe­rity and com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness”. At its core is the Clean Indus­trial Deal, desig­ned to advan­ce sus­tai­na­bi­lity whi­le redu­cing com­plian­ce bur­dens to strengthen indus­trial com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness. As part of this initia­ti­ve, the Che­mi­cals Industry Pac­ka­ge will intro­du­ce a tar­ge­ted revi­sion of REACH, aiming to impro­ve regu­la­tory effi­ciency whi­le main­tai­ning high safety and envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards. This pre­sents a cru­cial oppor­tu­nity to enhan­ce Europe’s eco­no­mic resi­lien­ce by fos­te­ring inno­va­tion, ensu­ring regu­la­tory pre­dic­ta­bi­lity, and sup­por­ting inter­na­tio­nally com­pe­ti­ti­ve indus­tries. Howe­ver, for regu­la­tions to be effec­ti­ve, they must also be prac­ti­cal, enfor­cea­ble, and con­sis­tently applied across the EU. A regu­la­tory fra­me­work that lacks cla­rity or is dif­fi­cult to imple­ment crea­tes legal uncer­tainty, hin­ders invest­ment, and wea­kens enfor­ce­ment at the natio­nal level. The fra­gran­ce industry, repre­sen­ted by the Inter­na­tio­nal Fra­gran­ce Asso­cia­tion (IFRA), plays a key role in Europe’s eco­nomy, ope­ra­ting at the inter­sec­tion of agri­cul­tu­re, che­mistry, and con­su­mer goods. With 750 SMEs – repre­sen­ting 50% of the industry’s eco­no­mic out­put – along­si­de lar­ge mul­ti­na­tio­nal pla­yers, the sec­tor sup­plies over 500,000 every­day pro­ducts whi­le pre­ser­ving strin­gent safety stan­dards. A clear and pro­por­tio­na­te regu­la­tory fra­me­work is essen­tial for sus­tai­ning Europe’s lea­dership in advan­ced ingre­dient deve­lop­ment, cul­tu­ral heri­ta­ge and high-value-added manu­fac­tu­ring. For Euro­pe to remain a hub for fra­gran­ce inno­va­tion, manu­fac­tu­ring and sus­tai­na­ble growth, the REACH revi­sion must stri­ke the right balan­ce – ensu­ring safety whi­le eli­mi­na­ting unne­ces­sary regu­la­tory bur­dens, pre­ven­ting exces­si­ve com­plian­ce costs, and fos­te­ring com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness. This requi­res con­ti­nued and struc­tu­red dia­lo­gue bet­ween industry, policy­ma­kers, and sta­kehol­ders to ensu­re regu­la­tions are both prac­ti­cal and enfor­cea­ble, safe­guar­ding safety whi­le strengthe­ning indus­trial competitiveness.

IFRA issues a series of gui­dan­ce docu­ments to sup­port its mem­bers in their work – hel­ping them to ensu­re the con­ti­nued safe use and enjoy­ment of fra­gran­ce mate­rials in a way that res­pects health and the environment.A selec­tion of public gui­dan­ce docu­ments is on the link below.

Fra­gran­ce is an essen­tial part of our daily lives and our well-being, health, and hygie­ne. It is a key ele­ment of every­day pro­ducts such as per­so­nal care pro­ducts and cos­me­tics, hand sani­ti­sers, sur­fa­ce clea­ners and anti-bac­te­rial deter­gents, as well as fine fra­gran­ces (per­fu­mes). The fra­gran­ce industry is a posi­ti­ve for­ce for envi­ron­men­tal, social and eco­no­mic sus­tai­na­bi­lity. The foun­da­tions of the sector’s approach on fra­gran­ce safety and sus­tai­na­bi­lity are the IFRA Stan­dards and the IFRA-IOFI Sus­tai­na­bi­lity Char­ter. For nearly 50 years, the fra­gran­ce industry has advan­ced the safe use of its ingre­dients, notably via the esta­blish­ment of an industry-wide Code of Prac­ti­ce and the IFRA Standards3, which are based on a con­ti­nuously refi­ned risk assess­ment approach for fra­gran­ce ingre­dients carried out by the Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials (RIFM). The IFRA-IOFI Sus­tai­na­bi­lity Char­ter takes a lifecy­cle approach to its pro­ducts across the value chains. Further­mo­re, the Euro­pean Union already has one of the most com­prehen­si­ve and pro­tec­ti­ve regu­la­tory sys­tems and we are com­mit­ted to sup­por­ting the EU in buil­ding on this solid, exis­ting scien­ce-based fra​me​work​.In Decem­ber 2019, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion pre­sen­ted its Com­mu­ni­ca­tion on the Euro­pean Green Deal,4 an umbre­lla com­mu­ni­ca­tion cove­ring seve­ral sec­tor-spe­ci­fic deli­ve­ra­bles inclu­ding the Che­mi­cals Stra­tegy for Sus­tai­na­bi­lity (CSS). IFRA sup­ports the aims of the Green Deal to trans­form the EU’s eco­nomy for a sus­tai­na­ble futu­re. We also sup­port the EU’s efforts to ensu­re health and envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion whi­le at the same time impro­ving the com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of Euro­pean industry, pro­mo­ting reco­very from the COVID-19 pan­de­mic, fos­te­ring the EU’s open stra­te­gic auto­nomy and making the transition to a bio-based economy.

This study has been com­mis­sio­ned by the Inter­na­tio­nal Fra­gran­ce Asso­cia­tion (IFRA) to assess the busi­ness impacts to the Euro­pean (EU) fra­gran­ce industry of selec­ted actions from the EU Commission’s (EC) Che­mi­cals Stra­tegy for Sus­tai­na­bi­lity (CSS): Towards a Toxic-Free Environment.