The review was held in Luxembourg under the auspices of DG SANCO (Directorate General Health & Consumers), and is striving towards creating a safer cosmetics industry.
The EU Commission states that; "This event will be the appropriate platform to monitor the progress made, exchange views, update the program and priorities for future work to ensure consumer safety in the area of fragrance allergy whilst providing a framework for innovation and competitiveness for the EU cosmetic industry."
Transparent
The IDEA project is a multi-stakeholder process designed to provide a broadly agreed and transparent framework for assessing fragrance sensitizers globally, and is supported by Tonio Borg.
It is an opportunity to build partnerships between the international fragrance industry and its stakeholders to improve the risk assessment of those fragrance ingredients identified as allergens, leading to better consumer protection.
"We are striving for mutual understanding by creating a transparent platform for communication and bringing together diverse views from all stakeholders to collectively define actions for the future," explains Pierre Sivac, IFRA President.
IDEA consists of a series of workshops bringing leading international scientists together to reach consensus on improving existing methodologies.
Recommendations made at the workshops are then followed up with industry or research projects. Every year, since this is a long-term project, it was decided that an Annual Review will take place to monitor and validate progress and update the program and priorities.
Continuous dialogue
"This project requires a lot of hard work from everyone involved; the EU Commission, the wider scientific and medical communities who are participating, the experts from industry and the small, dedicated team at IFRA," adds Sivac.
"We believe in this dialogue and we believe that together we can develop globally acceptable risk assessment approaches for all substances suspected of being skin sensitizers, ultimately broadening the scope beyond fragrance allergens.”
The IFRA boss says that this will enable regulators around the world to implement effective risk management measures ensuring the safe enjoyment of fragrances for consumers.