"The idea that IFRA is an inside job to kill the natural raw material side of the fragrance industry may seem like an attractive conspiracy theory at first, but upon even cursory examination, this idea falls apart.
Natural fragrance materials represent a sizeable chunk of the fragrance and flavour industry’s profits (and this includes the main IFRA members). Creating new aroma chemicals is extremely costly, a big risk, and burdened with its own regulatory pressures. Never mind the all too real possibility that an aroma chemical you have brought to market gets restricted or even banned by IFRA in the future if it is found to be problematic by their standards.
If IFRA were an inside job, this sort of thing would never happen."
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The low down on the European Union and IFRA regulations on fragrance and potential allergens as of this very minute is on Basenotes, as written by the knowledgable Pia Long. Please take a look if you haven't by now.
I have personally preached (forgive the emphatic word, I do consider myself an educator and an eternal student first and foremost) the complexities of the matter and the simplistic context of "just follow the money". It's more than that. You can find some of my old articles when the furore online first started under the Restrictions tab.
But perfume is considered such a frivolity by so many people that the greater issues that the industry itself experiences seldom get the limelight. It's high time that we sat down, ignored getting our panties in a wad for once and gave it some balanced attention.