IFRA Standards

The IFRA Stan­dards sets rules for the use a ran­ge of fra­gran­ce mate­rials based on scien­ti­fic assess­ment. The­se rules include:

Prohi­bi­tion: a ban on the use of a material

Res­tric­tion: rules on the maxi­mum quan­tity to be used and/​or the pro­ducts in which cer­tain mate­rials can be use

Spe­ci­fi­ca­tion: other con­di­tions on the type of mate­rial (such as purity criteria).

In all cases the final res­pon­si­bi­lity for the safe use of any fra­gran­ce mate­rial put on the mar­ket rests with the com­pany supplying the material.

The IFRA Stan­dards set the maxi­mum dose of a fra­gran­ce ingre­dient in finished con­su­mer goods. They are pri­ma­rily a tool for use by IFRA mem­bers in their daily work.

The typi­cal user is a per­fu­mer or someo­ne else with a tech­ni­cal, regu­la­tory or scien­ti­fic back­ground – and so the for­mat and lan­gua­ge of the Stan­dards are writ­ten with this audien­ce in mind.

Howe­ver, we belie­ve that it is an impor­tant part of our self-regu­la­tory role to be trans­pa­rent about the Stan­dards we apply – which is why all of the Stan­dards are avai­la­ble on this website.

The inde­pen­dent Expert Panel for Fra­gran­ce Safety over­sees the safety assess­ment pro­cess to ensu­re that it is scien­ti­fi­cally sound.

The Expert Panel is com­pri­sed of renow­ned inde­pen­dent experts from various scien­ti­fic fields, inclu­ding der­ma­to­logy, toxi­co­logy, patho­logy and envi­ron­men­tal science.

The Expert Panel eva­lua­tes data on a fra­gran­ce mate­rial and checks whether that data sup­ports current use levels.

Safety is the ove­rri­ding con­si­de­ra­tion: the Expert Panel seeks to ensu­re that fra­gran­ce mate­rials sub­mit­ted for review are sub­ject to appro­pria­te safety assessments.

Fra­gran­ce ingre­dient safety assess­ments are reports writ­ten by RIFM scien­tists, inclu­ding che­mists and toxi­co­lo­gists. Each fra­gran­ce ingre­dient sub­ject to a safety assess­ment is eva­lua­ted by RIFM scien­tists and tes­ted for human health and envi­ron­men­tal safety.

The safety assess­ments are published in a peer-revie­wed jour­nal and are avai­la­ble for no char­ge on the Fra­gran­ce Mate­rial Safety Resour­ce web­si­te.

In cases whe­re the safety assess­ment does not sup­port current use, the Expert Panel will con­clu­de that risk mana­ge­ment is neces­sary, and IFRA issues a Stan­dard based on this risk mana­ge­ment con­clu­sion either res­tric­ting, ban­ning or set­ting spe­ci­fi­ca­tions for a mate­rial so that it can be used safely.

Impor­tantly, the final deci­sion on the con­tent of the safety assess­ment upon which a Stan­dard is based, as well as the deter­mi­na­tion whether the Stan­dard addres­ses the risk mana­ge­ment set forth in the safety assess­ment, lie solely in the hands of the Expert Panel, not IFRA or RIFM – adding an addi­tio­nal layer of independence.

The IFRA Stan­dards-set­ting pro­cess prin­ci­pally invol­ves IFRA, the Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials (RIFM) and the inde­pen­dent Expert Panel on Fra­gran­ce Safety.

We also, through a con­sul­ta­tion pha­se, invol­ve our Mem­bers and sta­kehol­ders in the process.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: IFRA sends infor­ma­tion to RIFM

IFRA sends RIFM infor­ma­tion about a fra­gran­ce mate­rial, inclu­ding expo­su­re situa­tion (usa­ge con­cen­tra­tion, variety of use, volu­me of use); che­mi­cal com­po­si­tion; olfac­tory pro­fi­le; olfac­tory potential.

Step 2: RIFM pre­pa­res a dossier

RIFM pre­pa­res a com­prehen­si­ve dos­sier on the mate­rial, inclu­ding all avai­la­ble safety data. If neces­sary, RIFM initia­tes and orga­ni­zes safety stu­dies to fill gaps in know­led­ge about the material.

Step 3: Expert Panel evaluates

The inde­pen­dent Expert Panel eva­lua­tes the data. It checks whether the data sup­ports current use levels in such a way that the­re is no risk to con­su­mers. If the safety assess­ment does not sup­port current use, the Panel ins­tructs IFRA to issue a Standard.

Step 4: IFRA pre­pa­res a Standard

IFRA pre­pa­res a Stan­dard in line with its Stan­dard-set­ting process.

Step 5: Con­sul­ta­tion phase

The draft Stan­dard is sent to IFRA’s mem­bers and sta­kehol­ders for con­sul­ta­tion. The con­sul­ta­tion period allows mem­bers and sta­kehol­ders to pro­vi­de IFRA with addi­tio­nal data or scien­ti­fic stu­dies that may need to be con­si­de­red in set­ting the final Standard.

Step 6: Publi­ca­tion and implementation

If no addi­tio­nal infor­ma­tion is recei­ved during the con­sul­ta­tion pha­se, the final Stan­dard is published as part of an ​‘Amend­ment to the IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce’. Follo­wing publi­ca­tion, mem­bers have a spe­ci­fied period to chan­ge inter­nal sys­tems and apply the Standard.

The Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dards is a docu­ment esta­blished by com­pa­nies crea­ting fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res. It is based on the busi­ness rela­tionship bet­ween the fra­gran­ce sup­plier and its customer.

The Cer­ti­fi­ca­te is only appli­ca­ble for fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res inten­ded to be directly inclu­ded in a finished con­su­mer pro­duct. By using a Cer­ti­fi­ca­te, a fra­gran­ce sup­plier assu­res its cus­to­mer that the pro­duct they supply is in com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments set by the IFRA Stan­dards for an inten­ded use.

IFRA does not crea­te the cer­ti­fi­ca­tes and the­re is no cer­tif­ying com­pany pro­vi­ding cer­ti­fi­ca­tes on behalf of IFRA.

It is impor­tant to note that the Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity decla­res com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments expres­sed in the IFRA Stan­dards but does not repla­ce a safety assessment.

The­re is typi­cally no ​‘IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te’ for raw mate­rials. When the­re is an IFRA Stan­dard on a raw mate­rial (e.g. citrus essen­tial oil), you can­not issue a Cer­ti­fi­ca­te as such, but you can com­mu­ni­ca­te to your clients the con­for­mity of the raw mate­rial with the corres­pon­ding IFRA Standard.

Plea­se note that infor­ma­tion on essen­tial oils can also stem from the pre­sen­ce of IFRA res­tric­ted mate­rials in them (see Annex I to the IFRA Stan­dards on the IFRA Stan­dards docu­men­ta­tion page).

Given their inten­ded audien­ce, some of the infor­ma­tion pre­sen­ted can seem con­fu­sing or hard-to-unders­tand for non-experts. We belie­ve it is impor­tant to keep the infor­ma­tion brief and rele­vant for a tech­ni­cal audien­ce – but also to give a wider audien­ce the chan­ce to unders­tand what infor­ma­tion is in a Stan­dard, and why.

Here is a short explai­ner of the key infor­ma­tion con­tai­ned in a typi­cal Standard:

Basic infor­ma­tion: the che­mi­cal name of the fra­gran­ce mate­rial, any synonyms, an illus­tra­tion of the mole­cu­lar struc­tu­re, and the CAS, or Che­mi­cal Abs­tracts Ser­vi­ce, num­ber – a uni­que iden­ti­fier applied to dif­fe­rent che­mi­cal structures.

It is impor­tant to note that ​‘che­mi­cals’ do not only mean labo­ra­tory crea­tions: they inclu­de fra­gran­ce mate­rials from the natu­ral world too.

His­tory: a sum­mary of IFRA’s assess­ments of the fra­gran­ce mate­rial, inclu­ding when the mate­rial is due for further review based on the latest scien­ti­fic understanding.

Recom­men­da­tion: the type of Stan­dard being applied – a Prohi­bi­tion, Res­tric­tion or Specification.

Res­tric­tion limits in the finished pro­duct: maxi­mum per­mit­ted con­cen­tra­tion levels of the subs­tan­ce in dif­fe­rent pro­duct types. The pro­duct types are set out in the IFRA Stan­dards gui­dan­ce documents.

Intrin­sic pro­perty dri­ving risk mana­ge­ment: why we are taking action and issuing a Stan­dard – this is the poten­tial health effect that we are taking action to avoid through a Prohi­bi­tion, Res­tric­tion or Specification.

Nearly 500 years ago, Swiss phy­si­cian and che­mist Para­cel­sus expres­sed the basic prin­ci­ple of toxi­co­logy: ​“All things are poi­son and nothing is without poi­son; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.”

That is why we some­ti­mes apply a Prohi­bi­tion (when evi­den­ce shows that it would be dif­fi­cult to sup­port safe use at any rele­vant level) and some­ti­mes a Res­tric­tion or Spe­ci­fi­ca­tion (when evi­den­ce shows that a mate­rial is safe to use, but within limits).

RIFM safety assess­ment: addi­tio­nal infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded by the Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials, repor­ting on its stu­dies and findings.

Expert Panel for Fra­gran­ce Safety Ratio­na­le / con­clu­sion: addi­tio­nal expla­na­tions by the inde­pen­dent Fra­gran­ce Safety Panel.

IFRA does not pro­vi­de tuto­rials, but you can find use­ful infor­ma­tion on the follo­wing IFRA public information

• Series of short videos on the IFRA Stan­dards avai­la­ble on the IFRA You­Tu­be chan­nel: https://​www​.you​tu​be​.com/​p​l​a​y​l​i​s​t​?​l​i​s​t​=​P​L​2​S​m​U​J​h​0​r​v​r​4​2​U​4​E​t​y​h​X​_​K​k​d​T​e​e​M​D3xSK.
• Com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards, cate­go­ries, and the IFRA cer­ti­fi­ca­te of con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dard, acces­si­ble on the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Standards
• All current IFRA Stan­dards avai­la­ble on the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards library.
• Further infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards is avai­la­ble on the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards docu­men­ta­tion web­pa­ge.

You can also con­tact the IFRA Natio­nal Asso­cia­tion in your country, if the­re is one, for further local assistance.

As des­cri­bed in the noti­fi­ca­tion let­ter of the latest Amend­ment to the IFRA Stan­dards, the imple­men­ta­tion time­li­nes, which apply to the pro­du­cers of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res, are as follows:

• For IFRA Stan­dards prohi­bi­ting the use of ingredients:

  Date for Stan­dards ente­ri­ng into for­ce for new crea­tions: 2 months after the date of the Amend­ment notification.

  Date for Stan­dards ente­ri­ng into for­ce for exis­ting crea­tions: 13 months after the date of the Amend­ment notification.

• For IFRA Stan­dards res­tric­ting or set­ting spe­ci­fi­ca­tions for the use of ingredients:

  Date for Stan­dards ente­ri­ng into for­ce for new crea­tions: 9 months after the date of the Amend­ment notification.

  Date for Stan­dards ente­ri­ng into for­ce for exis­ting crea­tions: 28 months after the date of the Amend­ment notification.

After the­se dates, the fra­gran­ce hou­ses being IFRA mem­bers are no lon­ger allo­wed to ship non-com­pliant fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res to their customers.

Com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion on the latest Amend­ment to the IFRA Stan­dards is publicly avai­la­ble on this web­si­te in the follo­wing formats:

• Latest IFRA Amend­ment – IFRA Stan­dards over­view (Excel docu­ment)
• The com­ple­te IFRA Stan­dards:
• Index of IFRA Stan­dards – 51^st Amend­ment:
• The IFRA Stan­dard onli­ne library:
• IFRA 51^st Amend­ment – Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces (Excel docu­ment) to be down­load it at

Addi­tio­nal infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards and the 51^st Amend­ment can be found on the ​‘IFRA Stan­dards Docu­men­ta­tion’ webpage:n

The nor­mal cycle of the noti­fi­ca­tion of the Amend­ments of the IFRA Stan­dards is nor­mally every 3 years, unless the­re is any impor­tant chan­ge, like the case of the 50^th Amend­ment, also known as an ​‘off-cycle’ amendment.

An over­view of the IFRA Stan­dards which are part of the latest IFRA Amend­ment can be found in an EXcel for­mat docu­ment entitled ​‘Under the docu­ment titled ​‘IFRA 51^st Amend­ment – IFRA Stan­dards over­view’ (the amend­ment num­ber chan­ges with each new Amend­ment notification)/

IFRA does not offer any cal­cu­la­tor to cal­cu­la­te the amount of essen­tial oil to be used in the dif­fe­rent cate­go­ries has deve­lo­ped?. Ins­tead, you can find a non-exhaus­ti­ve list of exter­nal pro­vi­ders avai­la­ble on the IFRA web­si­te which could help you with the calculation.

Plea­se note that for Natu­ral Com­plex Subs­tan­ces (NCS) like essen­tial oils it is impor­tant the requi­red infor­ma­tion exchan­ge bet­ween sup­plier and user on the pre­sen­ce of IFRA-res­tric­ted mate­rials in the NCS for the cal­cu­la­tion of the maxi­mum use of the NCS in the end con­su­mer. Indi­ca­ti­ve infor­ma­tion is pro­vi­ded in IFRA Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces.

Regar­ding the CAS num­bers and the IFRA Stan­dards library, IFRA puts a lot of efforts in des­cri­bing what is in sco­pe of its Stan­dards. Still, it might be cha­llen­ging to be com­ple­tely inclu­si­ve by lis­ting all avai­la­ble CAS num­bers. This is why on many Stan­dards you will find the wor­ding ​‘The sco­pe of this Stan­dard inclu­des but is not limi­ted to the CAS number(s) indi­ca­ted abo­ve; any other CAS number(s) used to iden­tify this fra­gran­ce ingre­dient should be con­si­de­red in sco­pe as well.’ This aims to address the case of a mate­rial with a res­tric­tion, spe­ci­fi­ca­tion, or prohi­bi­tion, for which more than one CAS num­bers exists. This can be the case when a gene­ric CAS and more spe­ci­fic CAS are used to des­cri­be a mate­rial which may be based on his­tory, pre­fe­ren­ce, or becau­se dif­fe­rent iso­mers are pos­si­ble e.g. due to pre­sen­ce of chi­ral cen­tres and resul­tant ste­reo iso­mers. In the case of res­tric­tions and spe­ci­fi­ca­tions, in all cases, the IFRA Stan­dard limits apply to the total of all rele­vant CAS numbers.

Besi­des, the­re is only stan­dards set for mate­rials whe­re the current expo­su­re is not safe and risk mana­ge­ment is nee­ded. The­re are more mate­rials that have been asses­sed by RIFM ​‘Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rial’. The RIFM safety assess­ment are publicly avai­la­ble at https://​fra​gran​ce​ma​te​rial​sa​fety​re​sour​ce​.else​vier​.com/.

IFRA does not pro­vi­de public edu­ca­tio­nal trai­ning on the IFRA Stan­dards, but it offers a wide ran­ge of public infor­ma­tion resour­ces on the Stan­dards:

• The IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the use of the IFRA Stan­dards, which offers a very com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards.
• The Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces to the IFRA Stan­dards (also avai­la­ble here), which pro­vi­des a non-exhaus­ti­ve indi­ca­ti­ve list of typi­cal natu­ral pre­sen­ce of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients res­tric­ted by the IFRA Stan­dards. Each Natu­ral Com­plex Subs­tan­ce (NCS) lis­ted in that Annex, ‑like an essen­tial oil‑, is lin­ked to a cons­ti­tuent name (IFRA Stan­dard). In the corres­pon­ding IFRA Stan­dard, it is indi­ca­ted the maxi­mum accep­ta­ble con­cen­tra­tion in the finished pro­duct for the inten­ded use.
• A com­prehen­si­ve over­view file with all IFRA Stan­dards and limits currently avai­la­ble.
• Short expla­na­tory videos on the Stan­dards avai­la­ble on IFRA You­Tu­be channel.

Com­pa­nies have to comply with the national/​local regu­la­tions impac­ting fra­gran­ce ingre­dients and mix­tu­res in pla­ce in the coun­tries they ope­ra­te. This com­plian­ce is also one of the key requi­re­ments of the IFRA Code of Conduct.

The IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce – of which the IFRA Stan­dards is a major part – is the glo­bal fra­gran­ce industry’s com­mit­ment to pro­mo­ting the safe use of fra­gran­ce for everyone’s enjoyment.

IFRA has esta­blished the IFRA Stan­dards, a self-regu­la­ting volun­tary sys­tem of the industry, based on risk assess­ments carried out by an inde­pen­dent Expert Panel for Fra­gran­ce Safety. The IFRA Stan­dards ban, limit or set cri­te­ria for the use of cer­tain ingre­dients used in final con­su­mer pro­ducts regard­less of whether the subs­tan­ces are added directly or indi­rectly to the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re. It is com­pul­sory to comply with the IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce and Stan­dards for the IFRA mem­bers, covers around 80 per cent of the glo­bal fra­gran­ce industry by pro­duc­tion volume.

The­re­fo­re, the IFRA Stan­dards sets the limits/​bans of ingre­dients to be used in a safe way.

More infor­ma­tion can be found in the latest Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards , and all the IFRA Stan­dards on the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards library.

It is impor­tant to note that the IFRA Stan­dards are volun­tary and do not dis­miss com­pa­nies from complying with the national/​local regu­la­tions in pla­ce.

The IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dards is a docu­ment esta­blished only by the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re manu­fac­tu­rer (not the raw mate­rial sup­pliers) and based on a trus­ting rela­tionship bet­ween the fra­gran­ce sup­plier and its customer.

When the­re is an IFRA Stan­dard on a raw mate­rial (e.g., citrus essen­tial oil), the sup­plier should not issue an IFRA cer­ti­fi­ca­te as such. Ins­tead, sup­pliers should com­mu­ni­ca­te to their clients the con­for­mity of the raw mate­rial with the corres­pon­ding IFRA Stan­dard in a dif­fe­rent format.

It is rele­vant to note that the­re might be impor­tant infor­ma­tion on Natu­ral Com­plex Subs­tan­ces (NCS) that need to be exchan­ged bet­ween sup­plier and user about the pre­sen­ce of IFRA-res­tric­ted mate­rials in the NCS, as it is rele­vant for the cal­cu­la­tion of the maxi­mum use of the NCS. Indi­ca­ted infor­ma­tion is pro­vi­ded in the IFRA Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces (see sec­tion 1.4 of the IFRA-RIFM gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards).

The IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dards, this is a docu­ment esta­blished only by the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re manu­fac­tu­rer (not by a raw mate­rial sup­pliers) and based on a trus­ting rela­tionship bet­ween the fra­gran­ce sup­plier and its cus­to­mer. By using a Cer­ti­fi­ca­te, a fra­gran­ce sup­plier assu­res its cus­to­mer that the pro­duct they supply is in com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments set by the IFRA Stan­dards for an inten­ded use.

As sta­ted in the IFRA Code of Prac­ti­ce, it is the res­pon­si­bi­lity of each IFRA mem­ber to ensu­re that the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res or ingre­dients they supply comply with appli­ca­ble laws and are safe for their inten­ded uses.

It is impor­tant to nota that IFRA does not ela­bo­ra­te the Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity and the­re is no cer­tif­ying com­pany pro­vi­ding Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity on behalf of IFRA. Every sup­plier of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res is res­pon­si­ble for esta­blishing and pro­vi­ding an IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity (a tem­pla­te is avai­la­ble on the IFRA web­si­te).

The Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity can be issued by any­body who is fami­liar with the Code of Prac­ti­ce and the asso­cia­ted Stan­dards. It can the­re­fo­re also be used by non-mem­bers (not man­da­tory) to decla­re that they comply with the IFRA Standards.

The Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity decla­res com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments expres­sed in the IFRA Stan­dards, but it does not repla­ce a safety assess­ment and does not dis­miss from complying with the national/​regional/​local regu­la­tions in pla­ce.

IFRA has published an infor­ma­ti­ve list of third-party pro­fes­sio­nal ser­vi­ce com­pa­nies that can assist mem­bers and others who requi­re an exter­nal ser­vi­ce pro­vi­der to deve­lop a Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Stan­dards. This list inclu­des com­pa­nies that can attest the con­for­mity of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res with IFRA Stan­dards. https://​ifra​fra​gran​ce​.org/​s​a​f​e​-​u​s​e​/​i​f​r​a​-​c​e​r​t​i​f​i​cates.

More com­prehen­si­ve gui­dan­ce is avai­la­ble in theIFRA-RIFM gui­dan­ce for the use of the IFRA Stan­dards (

No, IFRA does not ela­bo­ra­te the Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity and the­re is no cer­tif­ying com­pany pro­vi­ding Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity on behalf of IFRA.

Every sup­plier of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res is res­pon­si­ble for esta­blishing and pro­vi­ding an IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to his clients (a tem­pla­te is avai­la­ble on the IFRA web­si­te).

If you want to find the IFRA Stan­dards cate­gory for a spe­ci­fic end-con­su­mer product/​application, plea­se follow the next steps:

1. check the infor­ma­tion on the IFRA cate­go­ries IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards.
2. if you can­not find the cate­gory of your end-con­su­mer pro­duct in the abo­ve men­tio­ned gui­dan­ce, look in the gui­dan­ce for a one simi­lar product/​application with regard to expo­su­re and habit and practice.
3. if you still can­not find the sui­ta­ble category,you can address to us, ideally by filling as much infor­ma­tion as pos­si­ble in the IFRA-RIFM Cate­go­ri­za­tion form you can find in this web­si­te. Plea­se note that IFRA-RIFM could sha­re our opi­nion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded but the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity lies with the producer.

In the case of esta­blishing the IFRA Stan­dard cate­go­ri­za­tion of dual or mul­ti­ple uses pro­ducts, It is neces­sary to always take the follo­wing approach:

1. com­pa­re the limits in both cate­go­ries the pro­duct shall be used in, for all ingre­dients within the fra­gran­ce, and
2. iden­tify the lowest limit for all ingre­dients in both cate­go­ries to dri­ve the ove­rall MAC for the dual use product.

The same prin­ci­ple and rules apply for pro­ducts with more than 2 inten­ded uses (in dif­fe­rent pro­duct cate­go­ries). The­re is an exam­ple for dual use (cate­go­ri­za­tion of mul­ti­ple uses pro­ducts) in the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards.

IFRA does not pro­vi­de sup­port to any com­pany soft­wa­re. The­re is publicly avai­la­ble an ​‘IFRA 51^st Amend­ment – IFRA Stan­dards over­view’ Excel docu­ment on IFRA web­si­te whe­re you can access the data.

The­re are third party pro­fes­sio­nal ser­vi­ce com­pa­nies which offer their soft­wa­re ser­vi­ce rela­ted to the IFRA Stan­dards, but the­re are com­ple­tely inde­pen­dent from IFRA’s activities.

For Natu­ral Subs­tan­ces Com­ple­xes (NCS)/raw mate­rial, you can find typi­cal con­cen­tra­tions of cons­ti­tuents of NCS, which have an IFRA stan­dard, allo­wing you to deri­ve the upper con­cen­tra­tion (%) of essen­tial oils, in the latest ​‘IFRA Amend­ment – Annex on con­tri­bu­tions from other sour­ces’ (see hyper­link). You may use the­se data in the absen­ce of own or sup­plier analy­ti­cal data for your NCS.

More infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards can be found in the latest ​‘IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards and the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards Library.

The IFRA Stan­dards and rela­ted docu­ments are sub­ject to regu­lar chan­ges as new infor­ma­tion rele­vant to the safety of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients beco­mes avai­la­ble. All the­se chan­ges are part of an IFRA Amend­ment, which is desig­ned accor­ding to an inclu­si­ve pro­ce­du­re and is sub­ject to a broad con­sul­ta­tion of all rele­vant sta­kehol­ders befo­re its Notification.

The com­plian­ce time­li­nes that will be applied to the Stan­dards in the latest Amend­ment are detai­led in the res­pec­ti­ve Noti­fi­ca­tion Letter.

The time­li­nes pro­vi­ded in the Stan­dards refer to mix­tu­res of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients (for­mu­las) and not to finished con­su­mer product(s). The date for com­plian­ce with the IFRA Amend­ments corres­ponds to the date of pla­ce­ment of fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res on the mar­ket, mea­ning for them to lea­ve a fra­gran­ce hou­se. From a docu­men­ta­tion point of view this should be con­si­de­red to be the ear­liest of the follo­wing dates: the date of dis­patch or the date of invoice.

The­re might be cir­cums­tan­ces whe­re scien­ti­fic fin­dings do not allow the com­ple­tion of a RIFM SA and the Panel will decla­re that no safe use can be deter­mi­ned for a given fra­gran­ce ingre­dient. In such a case, a sum­mary of the rele­vant toxi­co­lo­gi­cal data is pro­vi­ded by the Panel to IFRA and the RMTF to con­clu­de on the risk mana­ge­ment mea­su­res requi­red and their timing.
In case the resul­ting Stan­dard can­not be inte­gra­ted timely in a regu­larly sche­du­led ​‘Nor­mal cycle’ Amend­ment, IFRA has the option of taking imme­dia­te risk mana­ge­ment mea­su­res by issuing a so-called ​‘off-cycle’ Amendment.

You can find com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion about the IFRA Stan­dards and the Amend­ments in the latest ​‘IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the IFRA Standards.’

The RIFM paper ​”Crite­ria for the Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials, Inc. (RIFM) Safety Eva­lua­tion Pro­cess for Fra­gran­ce Ingre­dients” offers all end-points con­si­de­red on the safety assess­ments con­duc­ted by RIFM, which are the initial basis for the IFRA Stan­dards. In case a res­pi­ra­tory sen­si­ti­zer would be iden­ti­fied from the risk mana­ge­ment con­si­de­ra­tion at IFRA, it would actually be banned.

It is impor­tant to note that the IFRA Stan­dards are a volun­tary industry initia­ti­ve and com­pa­nies must still comply with national/​local regu­la­tions in place.

Apart of the ​‘fra­gran­ce aller­gens’ labe­lling regu­la­tion (Com­mis­sion Regu­la­tion (EU) 2023⁄1545 of 26 July
2023 amen­ding Regu­la­tion (EC) No ¹²²³⁄₂₀₀₉ of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil as regards labe­lling of fra­gran­ce aller­gens in cos­me­tic pro­ducts), the IFRA cate­go­ries for der­mal sen­si­ti­za­tion and sys­te­mic toxi­city end­points were revi­sed and har­mo­ni­zed are part of the 49^th Amend­ment based on QRA2.

The new Stan­dards for der­mal sen­si­ti­za­tion as of the 49^th Amend­ment are based on this new assess­ment metho­do­logy, known as Quan­ti­ta­ti­ve Risk Assess­ment (QRA2), which has been deve­lo­ped through the Inter­na­tio­nal Dia­lo­gue on the Eva­lua­tion of Aller­gens (IDEA).

IDEA pro­ject a mul­ti-sta­kehol­der pro­cess invol­ving der­ma­to­lo­gists, aca­de­mics, the industry and other sta­kehol­ders. The new Stan­dards look at aggre­ga­te expo­su­re of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients via dif­fe­rent con­su­mer pro­ducts, using a data­ba­se of real-life pro­duct use and habits that feeds into a sta­tis­ti­cal model, hel­ping us to unders­tand how peo­ple use fra­gran­ce pro­ducts in every­day life and to set rules that ensu­re they can con­ti­nue to use them safely.

For more details on the new assess­ment metho­do­logy, you can con­sult the QRA2 report (http://​www​.idea​pro​ject​.info/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​M​o​d​u​l​e​s​/​D​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/​q​r​a​2​-​d​o​s​s​i​e​r​-​final – september2016.pdf).

The latest infor­ma­tion on the IFRA cate­go­ries and IFRA Stan­dards is avai­la­ble in the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Standards.

All iso­mers in the IFRA Stan­dard are cove­red in its tota­lity. If indi­vi­dual iso­mers would be trea­ted sepa­ra­tely, then they would have iso­mer spe­ci­fic Stan­dards.

As explai­ned in the latest IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards, the defi­ni­tions of ​‘new crea­tions’ and ​‘exis­ting crea­tions’ for the Amend­ment time­li­ne com­plian­ces are:

“New crea­tions” are defi­ned as any fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re for which the brief1 has been issued after the com­ple­tion of the infor­ma­tion exchan­ge across the supply chain period (i.e., upda­te of IT sys­tems,
bila­te­ral infor­ma­tion exchan­ge bet­ween fra­gran­ce hou­ses and infor­ma­tion exchan­ge bet­ween fra­gran­ce hou­ses and cus­to­mers as a total of 7 months ). In prac­ti­ce, this means that briefs recei­ved after the Noti­fi­ca­tion can only be veri­fied for com­plian­ce with the requi­re­ments of the new Amend­ment once com­pa­nies are fully operational.

“Exis­ting crea­tions” are tho­se fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res that have already been pla­ced on the mar­ket in con­su­mer product(s) or are already in the deve­lop­ment pha­se at the time the com­ple­tion of infor­ma­tion exchan­ge comes to its end. This includes:

• fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res for which a brief has been recei­ved prior to the date of the Noti­fi­ca­tion of the Amendment;
• fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res for which the brief has been recei­ved during the period of infor­ma­tion exchan­ge across the supply chain;
• fra­gran­ce mix­tu­res that are already in deve­lop­ment by the fra­gran­ce manu­fac­tu­rer or even in the hands of the con­su­mer pro­duct manufacturer.

The aller­gen decla­ra­tion rela­tes to the EU Cos­me­tic Regu­la­tion (EU) ²⁰²³⁄₁₅₄₅ of 26 July 2023, not to the IFRA Stan­dards (do not con­fu­se that aller­gen decla­ra­tion with the IFRA Cer­ti­fi­ca­te of Con­for­mity to the IFRA Standards).

You can find more prac­ti­cal infor­ma­tion rela­ted to the EU aller­gen decla­ra­tion in the Cos­me­tics Europe’s gui­dan­ce on the ​‘fra­gran­ce aller­gens’ requi­re­ments.

IFRA Stan­dards that impo­se a quan­ti­ta­ti­ve limit on the use of fra­gran­ce mate­rials are expres­sed as an upper con­cen­tra­tion of fra­gran­ce mate­rial in the finished con­su­mer pro­duct, not the fra­gran­ce mix­tu­re. For exam­ple, the limit is for the com­ple­te pro­duct in the bottle, inclu­ding everything in.

The IFRA Stan­dards are not desig­ned, but can inform on the sin­gle use of a fra­gran­ce ingredients.

More infor­ma­tion on the IFRA Stan­dards can be found in the latest​‘IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards and the onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards Library.

In all cases, the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity always lies with the end con­su­mer pro­duct manufacturer.

We can­not advi­ce you on the cate­gory – we can only sha­re with you our pers­pec­ti­ve by dra­wing a con­clu­sion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded and the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards . Plea­se always con­sult this docu­ment first, as it con­tains a lot of use­ful information.

If the beard care pro­duct is for lea­ve-on appli­ca­tion, it seems that IFRA cate­gory 5B would be a sui­ta­ble option.

It is impor­tant to note that this IFRA opi­nion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded but the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity always lies with the pro­du­cer.

Should you refer to another bear care rela­ted appli­ca­tion, you might also want to con­si­der to try to fill in an RIFM-IFRA form that helps the expert group to cate­go­ri­ze the pro­duct (link also indi­ca­ted in the guidance).

We can­not advi­ce you on the cate­gory – we can only sha­re with you our pers­pec­ti­ve by dra­wing a con­clu­sion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded and the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards . Plea­se always con­sult this docu­ment first, as it con­tains a lot of use­ful information.

It seems that IFRA cate­gory 9 would be a sui­ta­ble option for bath bombs (simi­lar to bath salt).

It is impor­tant to note that this IFRA opi­nion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded but the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity always lies with the pro­du­cer.

Should you refer to another bear care rela­ted appli­ca­tion, you might also want to con­si­der to try to fill in an RIFM-IFRA form that helps the expert group to cate­go­ri­ze the pro­duct (link also indi­ca­ted in the guidance).

Den­tal floss is not in the sco­pe of the RIFM safety Assess­ment and the­re­fo­re not in the IFRA Stan­dards sco­pe either.
Plea­se note that you may need to comply with the fla­vour regu­la­tion in pla­ce. The Euro­pean Fla­vor Asso­cia­tion-EFFA (info@​effa.​eu) may help you on that, if needed.

We can­not advi­ce you on the cate­gory – we can only sha­re with you our pers­pec­ti­ve by dra­wing a con­clu­sion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded and the IFRA-RIFM Gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Stan­dards . Plea­se always con­sult this docu­ment first, as it con­tains a lot of use­ful information.

It seems that IFRA cate­gory 12 would be a sui­ta­ble option for for a pillow spray.

It is impor­tant to note that this IFRA opi­nion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vi­ded but the final deci­sion and res­pon­si­bi­lity always lies with the producer.

Should you refer to another bear care rela­ted appli­ca­tion, you might also want to con­si­der to try to fill in an RIFM-IFRA form that helps the expert group to cate­go­ri­ze the pro­duct (link also indi­ca­ted in the guidance).

You can find com­prehen­si­ve infor­ma­tion about the IFRA cate­go­ries and tables of cate­go­ries per pro­duct appli­ca­tion in the ​‘IFRA-RIFM gui­dan­ce for the Use of the IFRA Standards’.

Addi­tio­nally, IFRA also offers a free onli­ne IFRA Stan­dards Library whe­re all the current IFRA Stan­dards can be found and downloaded.

If the benzyl alcohol is used as a pre­ser­va­ti­ve in a cos­me­tic pro­duct and the regu­la­tion per­mits higher con­cen­tra­tion uses that tho­se recom­men­ded in the IFRA Stan­dard, then the regu­la­tion can be followed.

Plea­se note that con­cen­tra­tion of the IFRA Stan­dard of Benzyl alcohol are deri­ved for use as fra­gran­ce ingre­dient.

IFRA does not issue Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity for the use of the IFRA Stan­dards or any other form of cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, and no cer­tif­ying com­pany is autho­ri­zed to pro­vi­de Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of Con­for­mity on behalf of IFRA. The­re­fo­re, it is unautho­ri­zed to make any sta­te­ments regar­ding IFRA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion that could be mis­lea­ding. Further­mo­re, the IFRA Bylaws and our bran­ding gui­de­li­nes clearly sta­te that ​“no com­pany may use the IFRA logo without prior writ­ten authorization”.

In addi­tion, the IFRA Bylaws and IFRA brand gui­de­li­nes prohi­bit the use of the logo in any way that implies IFRA cer­ti­fies indi­vi­dual pro­ducts, raw mate­rials, or for­mu­la­tions. IFRA does not cer­tify pro­ducts or grant licen­ses for pro­mo­tio­nal use of its name or logo. Any such impli­ca­tion is mis­lea­ding to con­su­mers and the mar­ket­pla­ce”.

Fra­gran­ce manu­fac­tu­rers are requi­red to comply with legally bin­ding regu­la­tions in for­ce within the coun­tries whe­re they ope­ra­te and mar­ket their products.

The IFRA Stan­dards is a volun­tary risk mana­ge­ment sys­tem for the safe use of fra­gran­ce ingre­dients but man­da­tory for IFRA mem­bers, as part of the IFRA Code of Practice.

In some ins­tan­ces, IFRA Stan­dards may dif­fer from legal regu­la­tory risk mana­ge­ment mea­su­res (i.e. bans or res­tric­tions) .This is the case for Butylphenyl Methyl­pro­pio­nal (BMHCA,CAS n° 80−54−6), also known com­mer­cially as Lilial, which has been ban­ned in cos­me­tic pro­ducts (both exis­ting and new) in the Euro­pean Union as of March 2022.

The use of BMH­CA remains per­mit­ted in mar­kets outsi­de the EU (sub­ject to local regu­la­tions, if any) but IFRA mem­bers must comply with the con­cer­ned Standard.

The Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials (RIFM) has con­duc­ted a com­prehen­si­ve aggre­ga­te expo­su­re risk assess­ment. This assess­ment sup­ports the con­ti­nued safe use of p‑BMHCA in both cos­me­tic and non-cos­me­tic appli­ca­tions at the con­cen­tra­tions currently in use