Fragrance Safety Information Sheets 

To view our latest information sheets click on the links below:

Fragrance Myths and Facts 
November 13, 2007

The Truth About Phthalates
November 13, 2007

Fragrance Product Information Form
November 20, 2007

The FMA has updated its Fragrance Product Information Form (FPIF).  Version 2.0 of the FPIF reflects changes made by the 41st and 42nd Amendments to the IFRA Code of Practice.  The FPIF can be used to exchange regulatory and safety information on raw materials.  Although the FPIF could be used for some simple compounded bases, it is primarily intended for raw materials and not for finished fragrances.

The FPIF is an editable Microsoft Word document including check boxes and drop down menus.  We recommend you use the "protect form" function in Microsoft Word to enable the drop-down menus.

FPIF Version 2.0
FPIF definitions

Fragrance Safety Evaluation
The fragrance material industry is committed to providing its customers and the general public with safe and wholesome fragrance ingredients. This commitment is carried out through a program of human health and environmental safety assurance that includes several discrete steps.

Many fragrance ingredients have a long history of safe use extending back dozens if not hundreds of years. This history of safe use is, of course, particularly relevant when it comes to natural fragrance ingredients.

To assure the safety of its materials, the fragrance industry sponsors the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials, Inc. (RIFM), which was founded in 1966 as an international, independent non-profit organization that serves as the scientific arm of the fragrance industry. RIFM is charged with three principal objectives concerning fragrance materials: 1) to assure that there are adequate data available to support the safe use of these materials under their conditions of use by consumers, 2) to review and evaluate methods for testing fragrance ingredients and 3) to communicate this information to the industry, scientific and regulatory communities.

To help achieve these objectives, an international Panel of Experts (REXPAN), made up of leading toxicologists, pharmacologists, dermatologists and environmental scientists - none of whom has any other connection to the fragrance industry - was formed. Their scientific advice includes decisions on the safety evaluation of fragrance ingredients under conditions of intended use based on all available data. The safety assessments are based on studies sponsored by RIFM, fragrance material manufacturer safety data, published data and on any other relevant sources. The results of the evaluations are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

As a result of safety assessments, the usage of certain fragrance ingredients has been restricted in the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) Standards. In some cases, certain materials have been prohibited from use. All members of national associations belonging to IFRA must strictly comply with the IFRA Standards.

Members of national associations belonging to IFRA agree that they will only use fragrance ingredients that do not pose a risk to human health or to the environment under their intended conditions of use based on appropriate data. The manufacturer must evaluate ingredients not evaluated by RIFM.

Individual companies manufacturing new fragrance ingredients are required to perform extensive safety testing under the provisions of United State and European Union laws. These tests include a wide range of potential health affects.

In addition, manufacturers of finished consumer products often test their products for safety and consumer preference. These same consumer product companies track consumer complaints about fragrances.

The data from an FDA voluntary reporting program that was in operation for about five years showed that complaints about fragrance ingredients ran at less than one in a million, considerably lower than many other FDA regulated ingredients.