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P&G Latest CPG Company to Disclose Fragrance Ingredients as Part of Transparency Push

By Sustainable Brands | Published 7 years ago | About a 3 minute read

As consumer demand for product transparency grows, it is becoming increasingly important for companies to disclose information about the ingredients that go into to their products. Following this call to action, Procter & Gamble (P&G) has unveiled plans to list all fragrance ingredients down to 0.01 percent for its entire product portfolio in the US and Canada by the end of 2019. P&G will share information regarding over 2000 of its fragranced products online, making it the first company to commit to this level of fragrance ingredient transparency across a broad product portfolio.

“Our goal is to give people information that is clear, reliable and accessible. This is another step in our sustainability journey toward enabling consumers to make informed choices,” said Kathy Fish, Chief Technology Officer at Procter & Gamble. “We want people to feel great about putting our products in their shopping baskets. We’re providing more information about fragrance ingredients because we believe this will build even greater trust in the quality and safety of all of our products.”

With this announcement, P&G follows in the footsteps of SC Johnson, which in 2015 became the first CPG giant to disclose the product-specific ingredients of its fragrances. The company began sharing the makeup of ingredients down to .09 percent of the product formula, beginning with Glade®, with other brands including Pledge®, Windex®, Shout® and Scrubbing Bubbles® to follow.

This year, SC Johnson broke additional ground announcing its plans to disclose, on a product-specific basis, the presence of 368 potential skin allergens that may occur in its products. The list of these allergens has already been published on WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com, and by 2018, the site will list the allergens when contained in a product. This move goes beyond regulations in the European Union and also in the United States, where there are no rules requiring allergen transparency.

In a statement on Wednesday, SC Johnson applauded P&G's announcement, along with other recent commitments from Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser (RB) to increase their products' fragrance disclosure.

Beyond listing fragrance ingredients, P&G says it will also include information about where else these ingredients can be found, such as fruits, foods and other products. P&G is providing some initial examples of what the expanded fragrance disclosures include on selected Tide®, Febreze®, Herbal Essences® and Olay® products. P&G will first focus this effort on its fabric, home and beauty care products, where consumer interest is greatest, and will expand across additional product categories and geographies over time.

“EWG applauds Procter & Gamble’s groundbreaking decision to dramatically improve transparency about its fragrance ingredients across all of its brands. The policy announced today not only demonstrates P&G’s deep commitment to providing consumers everywhere with the information they increasingly demand, it also marks a turning point for the entire consumer product industry,” said Ken Cook, President of the Environmental Working Group.

“EWG has long considered transparency a major driving force in consumer product markets. The example set by Febreze, Tide, Olay and Herbal Essences today will without question encourage greater ingredient transparency efforts throughout the industry, providing consumers with the information they want and need to make better, healthier choices for themselves and their families.”