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The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM) recently submitted its first Expert-Panel approved safety assessment for a Natural Complex Substance, Petitgrain mandarin oil. The history-making evaluation followed the guidelines in RIFM’s Criteria Document for Natural Complex Substance materials published in Elsevier’s Food and Chemical Toxicology in January 2022.

A Natural Complex Substance, or NCS for short, is an ingredient extracted from plants and used in fragrance mixtures for various consumer products. An NCS contains several unique fragrance materials with different physical-chemical properties, making its assessment more complicated than an individual ingredient. (See How are Natural Complex Substances (NCS) evaluated?)

RIFM has been studying ingredients used for their fragrance-producing properties for more than half a century. RIFM’s science team, in collaboration with the independent Expert Panel for Fragrance Safety, published the first fragrance ingredient safety monograph in the peer-reviewed literature in 1973. Since then, RIFM has published thousands of safety assessments, most recently as part of a program focused on advancing New Alternative Methodologies developed to avoid animal testing.

RIFM’s current safety assessment program has focused on individual or discrete ingredients and follows the 2015 Criteria Document. RIFM expects to complete the full palette of discrete materials currently in use by 2024 and safety assessments on the NCS materials by 2028.

The submission of RIFM’s first NCS assessment marks the dawn of a new era for fragrance safety. “We understand that science is always changing and improving. Therefore, RIFM strives to integrate the latest science into our safety conclusions,” RIFM’s Safety Assessment manager, Danielle Botelho, PhD, explained. “Our team of experts has much to share about the safety of these complex mixtures that will benefit companies and consumers worldwide. The RIFM Safety Assessment team leads the way in complex mixture safety assessment.”

All of RIFM’s peer-reviewed and published safety assessments and research are made available via the open-access Fragrance Material Safety Research Center.

Register Now: This is where we’re going. RIFM’s 1st Annual Science Symposium. The virtual event is free to the general public. Wednesday, November 30, 2022, 8:00 am – noon EST. Type in “RIFM” if prompted for code.