Unilever goes further with enhanced ingredients transparency

The multinational consumer goods player has announced that it successfully delivered on its ‘industry leading’ commitment to voluntarily disclose fragrance ingredients​ across its home care and beauty & personal care products in Europe and the US by the end of 2018.

“Consumers across Europe and the US can now view fragrance ingredient information for over 3,000 home care and beauty & personal care products including popular household brands such as Dove, Axe, Comfort and OMO,” explains Unilever.

“The company’s decision to disclose fragrance ingredient information down to 0.01% of the product formulation was an industry first, paving the way and encouraging many other companies to do the same.”

Unilever’s transparency initiative​

Unilever’s transparency initiative aims to provide consumers with access to information which goes further than the label and regulatory requirement, in a bid to go above and beyond basic requirements and secure consumer trust.

The initiative was launched in early 2017​, and has come good on its aim to reveal ingredients information for over 3000 products in the multinational’s portfolio. Unilever brands include major international names like Dove, Axe (known as Lynx in the UK), and Simple.

Last year also saw the expansion of the company’s new Love Beauty and Planet ethical beauty range​: the first personal care brand to be launched by Unilever in 20 years.

Unilever’s Chief Research and Development Officer, David Blanchard, said: “We believe that providing this transparency will help build further trust in Unilever and our brands. We now want to expand our ingredient transparency initiative to more countries.”

In-depth product and ingredient information can be found online for Europe on the ‘What’s in our Products’​ section on Unilever websites, and through SmartLabel™​ in the US.

J&J also in on the act with transparency​

Johnson’s Baby, the baby-specific personal care range from Johnson & Johnson, is another player that last year launched a new ingredients transparency effort​.

In what it describes as a 'groundbreaking' move, the brand has begun disclosing 100% of the ingredients in its baby products.

Johnson’s Baby notes that it will even be releasing those elements of formulation that previously it has kept secret for commercial advantage.

“Fragrance has long been considered a trade secret, but Johnson's recognizes that today’s parents will feel even more confident in a product if they know 100% of the ingredients​,” the company says.