Publications

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.

This is a repository of relevant IFRA Information Letters from previous years, in which you can find details on developments relevant to IFRA’s work.

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.

Advancing fragrance Standards, sustainability, and global engagement.

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 framework​.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.