IFRA says high compliance reflects strength of self regulation

The industry body analyzed 50 fragranced products in ten countries from the personal care and household goods industries over the past year and found none containing IFRA banned ingredients. This is the second year that IFRA has tested for compliance with its standards and once again it has found no banned substances above a detection level of 0.01 per cent. "Our compliance program has demonstrated that our standards are adhered to by IFRA members and the fragrance industry at large around the world,"​ said IFRA director general Jean-Pierre Houri. Advantages of self regulation​ IFRA spokesperson Stephan Weller told CosmeticsDesign.com that the results also reflected the strength and effectiveness of self regulation. Weller said that compliance is not only high but the standards are strict. Policies are only formulated and set on review by REXPAN, an independent panel of experts. "Under self regulation we can also move much faster than government, from identifying potentially dangerous ingredients right through to their removal from the market,"​ added Weller. Adopted under the law​ IFRA standards are also integrated into the legal framework in Europe under the EU Cosmetics Directive. They have also been implemented as law in other parts of the world and most recently they were adopted by all 10 ASEAN countries in January this year. This extends the authority of the IFRA standards beyond its membership, which currently makes up 90 per cent of the fragrance industry. The survey of compliance, which will now be a yearly event, covered products manufactured by companies who were both members and non-members.