Five Materials Could Leave RIFM’s Programme. Formulas Are Worth Checking

When an ingredient feels like a familiar line in a formula, it is easy to lose track of its status. Yet changes like these often call for a calm inventory well before they become a production issue.

The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials has announced that it has completed work on the 2025 Not-Supported Materials List: the remaining materials on it have been removed from RIFM’s Safety Assessment Program. At the same time, the institute has created a new list in which five materials are at risk of removal.

This is neither a ban on a substance nor a final finding that it is unsafe. The status concerns a material’s participation in RIFM’s safety assessment programme. Still, for a perfumer, formula owner or supplier, it is an important practical threshold: a material that may no longer be supported by the programme is worth identifying in working formulas and documentation in advance.

In its published notice, RIFM does not openly name the five materials. The institute is inviting industry participants to a webinar on 14 October, where it says it will disclose the candidates. Until the list appears, it makes more sense not to speculate about the names, but to prepare an internal review: compare the ingredients in use with the forthcoming list and establish which compositions will require particular attention.

It is especially useful to separate this into two tasks. First, determine whether any candidates appear in current formulas, including trace components and raw-material blends. Second, establish who within the team holds current information on ingredient status and who will decide how to proceed with them.

RIFM’s update does not change the fragrance on the shelf today. It does, however, underline that a fragrance formula’s resilience depends on more than its olfactory idea and supply chain: it also matters whether a raw material remains within the scope of professional safety assessment.

The next substantive step will be publication of the names of the five materials. Until then, it is more accurate to describe them as candidates for removal rather than materials already removed.