Unilever has announced a new transparency initiative that will see the Anglo-Dutch FMCG giant disclose additional ingredient information about its home and personal care products on US, UK, German and Netherlands websites.  

The new scheme goes further than labelling requirements, providing consumers in the US and Europe with in-depth product information. The scheme will be rolled out to further European sites over the following months.

“Consumers want more transparency – they want to know what’s in the products they use every day, what fragrances are included, but also what these ingredients do,” David Blanchard, Unilever Chief R&D Officer told Global Cosmetics News. “For a company like ours – which has a wide range of both home and personal care brands – it’s really important that consumers know that they can trust us and our products. This is really about listening to our consumers and providing the information they want in a quick, easy and accessible way. Businesses need to work hard and consistently to maintain consumer trust – we can never take it for granted.”  

For fragrances, Unilever will disclose online ingredients in individual products down to 0.01 percent of product formulation by 2018. Unilever will also usher in a new section across its websites – What’s in our Products – providing people with information on Unilever’s approach to developing safe products and explanations of ingredient types.