IFRA recommendations for good operating practices

Any fra­gran­ce mate­rials manu­fac­tu­ring cen­ter should employ per­son­nel with ade­qua­te levels of tech­ni­cal and prac­ti­cal trai­ning and with the autho­rity and res­pon­si­bi­lity, to ensu­re and main­tain the iden­tity, purity and qua­lity of the pro­ducts manufactured.

In order to avoid con­ta­mi­na­tion of a fra­gran­ce mate­rial or its pac­ka­ging, all per­son­nel invol­ved in their manu­fac­tu­re and hand­ling should prac­ti­ce good per­so­nal hygie­ne and be free from skin disor­ders or infections.

All manu­fac­tu­ring areas should be clean and orderly. Writ­ten pro­ce­du­res should be in pla­ce defi­ning the areas to be clea­ned, clea­ning fre­quency, appro­pria­te clea­ning equip­ment and mate­rials, and per­son­nel res­pon­si­ble for clea­ning operations.

Eating, smo­king and unhy­gie­nic prac­ti­ces should not be per­mit­ted in com­poun­ding and pac­ka­ging areas.

Suf­fi­cient clean and well-ven­ti­la­ted toi­let faci­li­ties, inclu­ding faci­li­ties for hand washing and chan­ging of clothes should be avai­la­ble near the wor­king areas for the use of manu­fac­tu­ring personnel.

Access to all manu­fac­tu­ring areas should be res­tric­ted to autho­ri­zed personnel.

Pre­de­fi­ned pro­per­ties of all fra­gran­ce ingre­dients and finished pro­ducts should be moni­to­red and con­tro­lled by a qua­lity con­trol depart­ment direc­ted by a qua­li­fied per­son repor­ting to mana­ge­ment and inde­pen­dent of other depart­ments. This depart­ment should ope­ra­te accor­ding to defi­ned pro­ce­du­res, with the res­pon­si­bi­lity and autho­rity to appro­ve or reject the eva­lua­ted materials.

The labo­ra­tory faci­li­ties avai­la­ble to the qua­lity con­trol depart­ment should be staf­fed and equip­ped com­men­su­ra­te with the requi­re­ments of effec­ti­ve qua­lity control.

Qua­lity assu­ran­ce pro­ce­du­res should defi­ne in suf­fi­cient detail the taking of sam­ples, inclu­ding the quan­ti­ties, tests to be per­for­med, sam­ple reten­tion, and the sche­du­le for relea­se of the results. QA sam­ples should be uni­quely labe­led, with refe­ren­ce to the date and batch num­ber. Sam­ples should be sto­red under sui­ta­ble con­di­tions for futu­re reference.

The qua­lity assu­ran­ce depart­ment should main­tain ade­qua­te records regar­ding the spe­ci­fi­ca­tion and test results of each batch.

The qua­lity assu­ran­ce orga­ni­za­tion and pro­ce­du­res should enable mana­ge­ment or outsi­de moni­to­ring agen­cies to check regu­larly whether all ins­truc­tions and pro­ce­du­res invol­ved in any sta­ge of manu­fac­tu­ring and qua­lity con­trol are being strictly followed.

All ingre­dients to be used in fra­gran­ce com­poun­ding or to be sold should be pro­perly sam­pled, tes­ted for com­plian­ce with orga­no­lep­tic and analy­ti­cal spe­ci­fi­ca­tions and relea­sed by the qua­lity con­trol depart­ment via defi­ned procedures.

For all ingre­dients and pro­ducts, records should be kept per­mit­ting iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the batch, the pro­duc­tion his­tory or ori­gin, and defi­ning dates for the various con­trol steps, inclu­ding relea­se by the qua­lity assu­ran­ce department.

During the period bet­ween their arri­val from the sup­plier or from the pro­duc­tion cen­ter and their use in fra­gran­ce com­poun­ding or ship­ment to the cus­to­mer, all fra­gran­ce ingre­dients should be sto­red under con­di­tions com­pa­ti­ble with their phy­si­cal and che­mi­cal properties.

Ingre­dients that have been rejec­ted for any reason should be desig­na­ted accor­dingly, qua­ran­ti­ned either phy­si­cally or elec­tro­ni­cally, and trea­ted in accor­dan­ce with the natu­re of the rejection.

All manu­fac­tu­ring sys­tems should be super­vi­sed and ope­ra­ted by qua­li­fied per­son­nel, trai­ned accor­ding to defi­ned pro­ce­du­res in unit operations.

For all manu­fac­tu­ring equip­ment and uten­sils, ade­qua­te clea­ning ins­truc­tions should be avai­la­ble as well as qua­li­fied per­son­nel res­pon­si­ble for the pro­per execu­tion of the­se ins­truc­tions and for the clean­li­ness of the equip­ment prior to its use.

All manu­fac­tu­ring equip­ment should be desig­ned and main­tai­ned to make it sui­ta­ble for its inten­ded use.

All manu­fac­tu­ring equip­ment should be ins­ta­lled in the pro­duc­tion pre­mi­ses in posi­tions faci­li­ta­ting clea­ning and main­te­nan­ce and mini­mi­zing con­ta­mi­na­tion during its use.

Weighing and mea­su­ring equip­ment used in pro­duc­tion and qua­lity con­trol should be cali­bra­ted and chec­ked for accu­racy at sui­ta­ble inter­vals by appro­pria­te methods.

The con­tents of all ves­sels and con­tai­ners used in manu­fac­tu­re and sto­ra­ge bet­ween manu­fac­tu­ring sta­ges should be iden­ti­fied by cons­pi­cuously pla­ced and clearly legi­ble labels, bea­ring the name and/​or iden­ti­fi­ca­tion code of the pro­ces­sed mate­rials and the neces­sary batch iden­ti­fi­ca­tion data.

In the case of con­ti­nuous ope­ra­tions, batch records per se may not be pos­si­ble. Ins­tead, a con­ti­nuously upda­ted file or auto­ma­ted data collec­tion can be used to per­mit without delay a review of the pro­duc­tion his­tory of the con­tents of any par­ti­cu­lar container.

Manu­fac­tu­ring records should be kept pro­vi­ding a com­ple­te record of the manu­fac­tu­ring his­tory of each batch of a fra­gran­ce mate­rial, sho­wing that it has been manu­fac­tu­red accor­ding to the rele­vant pro­cess docu­men­ta­tion and that its pro­per­ties have been mea­su­red and con­tro­lled in accor­dan­ce with rele­vant specifications.

A sepa­ra­te batch manu­fac­tu­ring record should be pre­pa­red for each batch con­tai­ning the name of the pro­duct, the date of manu­fac­tu­re, the batch iden­ti­fi­ca­tion code, the weight, as well as infor­ma­tion regar­ding the types of pac­ka­ging mate­rials or con­tai­ners. The record should iden­tify the per­son and/​or equip­ment res­pon­si­ble for the pro­duc­tion batch.

For each batch mee­ting the requi­re­ments of the rele­vant spe­ci­fi­ca­tions, a qua­lity con­trol report should be made, duly autho­ri­zed by the per­son res­pon­si­ble for qua­lity assurance.

In selec­ting, hand­ling and con­trol of all pac­ka­ging mate­rials, pro­per atten­tion should be given to their con­di­tion, clean­li­ness and sui­ta­bi­lity for the pro­duct they contain.

All pac­ka­ges and con­tai­ners of finished pro­ducts should be iden­ti­fied by labels complying with appli­ca­ble legis­la­tion and men­tio­ning the name, code and batch num­ber of the pro­duct, its weight, and any spe­cial sto­ra­ge and hand­ling instructions.

All qua­lity assu­ran­ce records should be retai­ned for a period in accor­dan­ce with appli­ca­ble legis­la­tion, but in any event at least for three years.

Field of application

This sec­tion applies to the manu­fac­tu­re and hand­ling of all fra­gran­ce mate­rials, inclu­ding sto­ra­ge, pro­duc­tion and plant design. It may requi­re revi­sion if futu­re deve­lop­ments in the industry make it necessary.

The appli­ca­tion of this sec­tion does not exempt indi­vi­dual manu­fac­tu­rers from the obli­ga­tion to comply with all natio­nal or inter­na­tio­nal regu­la­tions, which are rele­vant to their operations.

Basic principles

The pro­tec­tion of health in the work­pla­ce and the pro­tec­tion of the envi­ron­ment are of pri­mary con­cern to the fra­gran­ce industry. This sec­tion expres­ses a deter­mi­na­tion to pro­tect human health and the envi­ron­ment from adver­se effects.

Risks to human health and the envi­ron­ment shall be mini­mi­zed by taking all appro­pria­te pre­cau­tions and actions which are prac­ti­ca­ble, com­pa­ti­ble with ope­ra­tio­nal requi­re­ments and con­sis­tent with local con­di­tions and natio­nal regu­la­tions. Mea­su­res taken should be appro­pria­te to the degree of risk involved.

Free exchan­ge of infor­ma­tion on health and envi­ron­men­tal sub­jects among indi­vi­dual com­pa­nies is encouraged.

Health protection

All per­son­nel invol­ved in the manu­fac­tu­re and hand­ling of fra­gran­ce mate­rials should be pro­tec­ted from health hazards of a phy­si­cal natu­re (e.g. noi­se, radia­tion, vibra­tion) or che­mi­cal effects of gases, vapors or dusts.

Efforts should be made to eli­mi­na­te or mini­mi­ze expo­su­re to health hazards by taking tho­se pre­cau­tions, which are neces­sary in the light of expe­rien­ce, fea­si­ble accor­ding to the sta­te of tech­no­logy and appro­pria­te to the ope­ra­ting conditions.

Prio­rity should be given to tech­ni­cal mea­su­res and impro­ve­ments such as clo­sed sys­tems, the use of less hazar­dous mate­rials, sour­ce ven­ting and gene­ral ventilation.

If tech­ni­cal and orga­ni­za­tio­nal mea­su­res are not suf­fi­ciently effec­ti­ve, per­so­nal pro­tec­ti­ve clothing and equip­ment should be worn such as res­pi­ra­tory pro­tec­tion (face mask, breathing appa­ra­tus, etc), eye and ear pro­tec­tion (safety glas­ses, face visor, ear plugs, etc.), hand and body pro­tec­tion (glo­ves, suit, apron, shoes, etc.).

Spe­ci­fic infor­ma­tion and ins­truc­tions on requi­red pro­tec­ti­ve mea­su­res should be pro­vi­ded to per­son­nel in order to avoid health hazards in the workplace.

Com­pa­nies should perio­di­cally audit any of their work­pla­ces which have poten­tial health hazards, with regard to health pro­tec­tion per­for­man­ce. If neces­sary, expo­su­re-moni­to­ring sur­veys should be carried out.

Whe­re law requi­res no safety data sheets, recom­men­da­tions on sto­ra­ge and hand­ling should neverthe­less be pro­vi­ded to customers.

Environmental protection

The envi­ron­ment should be pro­tec­ted from adver­se effects by appro­pria­te orga­ni­za­tio­nal and tech­ni­cal mea­su­res. Pollu­tion affec­ting water, air, soil and public health should be avoided.

Emis­sions, which can have an adver­se effect on the envi­ron­ment, should be iden­ti­fied, asses­sed and, if neces­sary, reduced.

Pro­vi­sion should be made to avoid acci­den­tal dis­char­ges into the envi­ron­ment, which could pose a risk to health of per­son­nel or the gene­ral public, or could have adver­se effects on the environment.

Awa­re­ness of envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion should be deve­lo­ped among all per­son­nel hand­ling mate­rials and they should be ins­truc­ted on emer­gency pro­ce­du­res in case of acci­den­tal discharge.

Recom­men­da­tions should be pro­vi­ded to cus­to­mers on sto­ra­ge and hand­ling pre­cau­tions in tho­se cases whe­re this is requi­red to pro­tect the environment.

Water protection

Tech­ni­cal and admi­nis­tra­ti­ve mea­su­res should be taken to make sure that dis­char­ged was­te­wa­ter com­plies with the legal requi­re­ments rele­vant to the recei­ver (water stream, public or pri­va­te sewer or treat­ment plant).

Pro­vi­sion should be made to avoid dis­char­ging pollu­ting mate­rials into sur­fa­ce water drains.

Air protection

The emis­sion of inor­ga­nic or orga­nic mate­rials into the atmosphe­re must be kept within the levels spe­ci­fied in natio­nal regulations.

Tech­ni­cal and admi­nis­tra­ti­ve mea­su­res should be taken to avoid the acci­den­tal dis­char­ge into the atmosphe­re of quan­ti­ties of mate­rials hazar­dous to health or to the environment.

Soil and ground water protection

The soil should be pro­tec­ted from adver­se con­ta­mi­na­tion by inor­ga­nic or orga­nic materials.

Tech­ni­cal and admi­nis­tra­ti­ve mea­su­res should be taken to avoid con­ta­mi­na­tion of ground­wa­ter ari­sing from soil contamination.

Waste disposal

Prio­rity should be given to redu­cing the quan­tity of was­te mate­rial pro­du­ced and to recy­cling it as feeds­tock, to using it for energy pro­duc­tion or for other purposes.

Che­mi­cal was­tes shall be dis­po­sed of accor­ding to local, natio­nal or inter­na­tio­nal legal requi­re­ments. Only offi­cially appro­ved dis­po­sal sites shall be used.

The most appro­pria­te dis­po­sal methods should be selec­ted for each was­te so as to ensu­re ade­qua­te pro­tec­tion of the public and the envi­ron­ment. Currently, inci­ne­ra­tion is to be pre­fe­rred to land filling, whe­re­ver possible.

Appro­pria­te was­te mana­ge­ment methods should be applied. Ade­qua­te records of all dis­po­sed was­tes should be kept. Land­fill dis­po­sal records should be held indefinitely.