IFRA publishes updated global Transparency List of fragrance ingredients

The International Fragrance Association has published the latest edition of the IFRA Transparency List, an overview of the ingredients used to create fragrance mixtures employed by consumer goods companies in personal care products, home care products and fine fragrance worldwide.

A key part of the fragrance industry’s Commitment to Transparency, this new List updates the previous edition from 2016 and provides a ‘snapshot’ of ingredients used by fragrance companies around the world. This snapshot is based on global surveys of IFRA member companies and National Associations, the most recent of which carried out in 2021.

As well as providing a compendium of the fragrance ingredients in commercial use, this latest edition of the IFRA Transparency List includes, for the first time, further identifying information on Natural Complex Substances (NCSs), allowing users of the List to understand the origin and processing of natural ingredients. This information is based on the principles of the internationally recognized ISO 9235 standard on aromatic natural raw materials.

All IFRA members are obliged to use any fragrance ingredient, including the 3,619 ingredients featured on this List, in accordance with the IFRA Code of Practice. The Code requires adherence to the rules of IFRA’s safe use program, the IFRA Standards, as well as to national and local laws and restrictions on the use of materials, and to good operating practices.

IFRA President Martina Bianchini said,

“The IFRA Transparency List is the ‘perfumer’s palette’ – an overview of the range of ingredients used by our industry to create fragrances used in consumer products.

“Since 2010 the Transparency List has been an important part of our work, helping people inside and outside our industry to understand more about the ingredients used by our industry and allowing us to build a range of tools and services for our members worldwide, such as the IFRA Fragrance Ingredient Glossary.”

IFRA Chairman Hans Holger Gliewe added,

“IFRA is committed to providing useful, relevant and timely information about our industry’s policies, activities and creations. Through the Transparency List and other tools, we seek to provide useful information on fragrance ingredients in a way that protects innovation and the value of fragrance creations.”

The 3,619 ingredients included in this edition of the IFRA Transparency List include 3,224 fragrance ingredients used for odor or malodor coverage and 395 functional ingredients that are used to support the functionality and/or durability of a fragrance compound. There are 992 Natural Complex Substances that feature further information based on the ISO 9235 standard.

The full list and further explanatory information is available on the IFRA website at ifrafragrance.org/transparencylist.