The fragrance, flavours and cosmetics ingredients player has teamed up with Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (GC3) and Innocentive to facilitate the contest, which aims to discover new and effective preservatives that can be used in personal care and household products.
It comes as consumer demand for ‘truly natural’ beauty products continues to grow, and free-from claims are making the difference for products in a competitive, mature beauty market like Europe.
Details of the competition
The Global Preservative Challenge is offering prizes with a total value of USD 175,000 for successful entrants.
At the beginning of 2018, up to five finalists of the contest will present their technology at a meeting in the USA, with the deadline for submitting applications August 24, 2017.
Full details and entry requirements are available here.
Why the hunt?
Preservatives are used to prevent microbial growth in cosmetic products, and are used across cosmetics, shampoos, creams and detergents.
The industry is facing something of a preservative crisis due to removal of some preservatives from the market and increased restrictions on the use of conventional preservatives and new trends in the market.
Because of both regulation and consumer-led rejection of certain preservatives the product protection tool box is shrinking.
“This has created a big demand for alternative preservatives,” emphasizes Dr. Ravi Pillai, Vice President, Micro Protection Category of Cosmetic Ingredients Division, at Symrise. “That's why the market urgently needs new, safe and effective preservatives.”
The company, which has been developing alternative preservative systems for two decades says that it hopes a further development boost to come from the Preservative Challenge.