Unilever has been developing and using non-animal approaches to assure the safety of our products for decades. The list of PETA-approved Unilever brands that are not tested on animals anywhere in the world continues to grow. 

Unilever believes there is no need for animal testing to ensure that products are safe. But recent announcements from the European Commission and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) could undo the continued progress that they – and many others – so want to see.

In August 2020, ECHA said that certain substances must be tested on animals even if they are solely for use in cosmetics. They say this is to assess any risks to workers in factories during product manufacture.

Unilever believes that, with the scientific tools available, in the 21st century, new tests on animals are not needed to achieve workers' safety. The ingredients at the centre of ECHA’s testing decisions have a long history of safe use by consumers, and have been handled safely in factories for many years by ensuring effective exposure-based assessments and controls are in place.

"We categorically do not agree that animal testing is necessary to ensure safety and strongly encourage the use of new scientific knowledge and non-animal data. We believe that the lessons we have learnt from doing non-animal product safety assessments over many years can be applied to assessing the safety of ingredients to protect the workers in our factories. The future of chemical safety assessment is animal-free and it’s time to embrace modern, human-relevant, non-animal scientific approaches for regulatory decision-making. Anything else is a step backwards – for animals, for consumers and for scientific and societal progress", says Julia Fenthem.