Fragrances enhance the experience of using our personal care, hair, laundry and home care products. Above all, scents have their own magic. They can cheer us up, calm us down or inspire us. Henkel offers many products in a wide-range of fragrances, unscented products, and fragrance-free products. So whatever preference our consumers may have they will find the right choice in our product portfolio.
Fragrance Ingredient
The safety and well-being of our consumers is our top priority. Henkel takes great effort to ensure the safety of the fragrance ingredients we use in our products. Henkel fragrances are formulated to be safe, which includes at a minimum, compliance with the standards set by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA). These standards are based on risk assessments by an independent scientific expert panel and may prohibit or restrict the use of fragrance materials in consumer goods if there is concern for human health or the environment. For a list of IFRA fragrance ingredients visit www.ifraorg.org/en-us/ingredients. Moreover, we have gone beyond IFRA standards by introducing additional restrictions that further ensure the safety of our fragrances.
For example, to pledge the safety of our youngest consumers, Henkel North America has made the commitment that our cleansing products intended for use by children, including babies, will be fragrance-free or will contain restricted levels of fragrance ingredients known to be more likely to cause allergies, at thresholds established by the European Union (EU) for labeling certain fragrance ingredients.
Regarding this category of EU 26 fragrance ingredients, Henkel North America is now taking the next step to empower our consumers with additional information on fragrances. We understand some consumers have specific needs or desires to know about fragrance ingredients that may cause an allergic reaction in certain individuals sensitive to the ingredient. With the safety of our consumers in mind, we have begun to share ingredient information relating to those 26 fragrance ingredients by indicating them for our everyday products on our product brand websites. With this information consumers can tailor their product selections to those which suit them best.
Another important element of our fragrance and product safety program is the continuous monitoring of our products in the marketplace. Our product safety experts regularly apply the insights gained in this way into their product safety evaluations.
In selecting and using ingredients we also follow controversial discussions in the general public about the safety of ingredients, including fragrance ingredients, in consumer products. We generally consider any discussion regarding ingredients is sufficient reason to critically review the scientific basis underlying our assessments. If there are serious reservations about the continued validity of the scientific data and findings regarding ingredient safety, we either avoid using an ingredient altogether or restrict its use so that it meets our stringent safety criteria. Our consumers can use our products with confidence.
European Commission Fragrance Regulation
The safety and well-being of our consumers is our top priority. A scientific advisory body to the European Commission (Scientific Commission on Consumer Safety, SCCS) identified 26 fragrance ingredients that are known to be more likely to cause allergies in certain individuals. This list, including thresholds, was adopted in the 7th amendment of the EU Cosmetics Directive (predecessor of the current EU Cosmetics Regulation), and is referenced in the EU Detergents Regulation. For individuals who may be sensitive to these fragrance ingredients, and to be transparent with regard to our use of fragrance ingredients that may be on this list, Henkel is sharing ingredient information that now includes information pertaining to these 26 fragrance ingredients for many of our everyday products on our branded websites. Henkel’s variety of fragrances are developed to allow many choices for consumers. In the event certain consumers need to avoid a particular fragrance ingredient, they may select other products to enjoy that do not contain “their” allergen.
If you have questions, please call us at 1-800-258-3425.