Behind the Scents podcast: How the IFRA Standards keep fragrance safe

The International Fragrance Association (IFRA) has published the second episode of its Behind the Scents podcast. Host Charles de Lusignan is joined by Dr Matthias Vey, Vice President, Scientific Affairs at IFRA, to explain how the IFRA Standards are set, how long they take to reach the perfumer's bench, and what they have already changed in the marketplace.

The IFRA Standards are the cornerstone of global fragrance safety, setting the rules that keep the perfumes, candles, soaps and cleaning products consumers enjoy every day safe for people and for the environment. They restrict, limit or ban the use of individual fragrance ingredients – but only where the evidence shows an intervention is needed.

That threshold is the heart of the episode. Of the roughly 3,000 materials available to perfumers, only a few hundred carry a standard. As Dr Vey explains, "we compare the current use with the safe use. As long as the safe use is higher than the current use, there is no need to set a standard. If we have the reverse case, then we need to restrict the use based on what is considered safe."

Everything therefore rests on exposure. IFRA runs global surveys covering both the volume of materials on the market and how much fragrance consumers are actually exposed to, gathering data from fragrance houses and from the consumer goods companies that use their creations – a level of insight Dr Vey believes few other industry sectors can match.

The assessments themselves are carried out independently. The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM) conducts the risk assessments, which are then scrutinized by an independent Expert Panel drawn from North and South America, Europe and Asia. Only once that panel is satisfied can a safety assessment become the basis for a standard.

New standards are then grouped into amendments, issued roughly every three years, with implementation timelines of up to two years for products already on the market and shorter deadlines for new launches. Where a severe consumer safety concern arises, IFRA can act within one year. Bundling changes gives fragrance houses and their customers a single window in which to reformulate and to complete the safety and stability testing that follows.

Dr Vey points to oak moss and tree moss as the clearest illustration of the system working. Both are prized in fine perfumery and both are known skin sensitizers. After years of work to identify the triggers, IFRA reduced the content of the materials of concern and lowered the overall usage limits – and dermatology clinics have since recorded a measurable fall in sensitization rates.

The conversation also touches on the industry's longstanding debate with regulators over hazard-based decision-making, on the perception of IFRA as an industry "police force", and on Dr Vey's own route into fragrance, from chemistry studies and a perfumery education to selecting scents for a cosmetics manufacturer.

The IFRA Podcast: Behind the Scents is a new series exploring the people and ideas shaping the future of fragrance. Listen to the full episode here:

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