Unilever reveals support for worldwide animal testing ban for cosmetics

Personal care giant, Unilever, has announced its support for a global ban on animal testing for cosmetics.

With 57 brands in its portfolio, the announcement comes as part of a new collaboration with animal protection organisation, Humane Society International (HSI). Unilever brands include Dove, Lynx, Sure, Toni & Guy and Simple.

Unilever’s largest personal care brand, Dove, has also gained PETA cruelty-free accreditation. PETA’s cruelty-free logo will begin to appear on Dove packaging imminently.

“Animal testing for cosmetics has been banned in the EU since 2013,” says David Blanchard, chief research and development officer at Unilever. “We hope that an adoption of similar bans in other countries will accelerate the regulatory acceptance of alternative approaches and thereby remove any requirements for any animal testing for cosmetics anywhere in the world.

“We’re very hopeful that through collaboration, it will soon be possible to assess the safety of all cosmetics products without any need for animal testing anywhere in the world.”

Unilever will support HSI’s #BeCrueltyFree initiative, which is leading legislative reform in key beauty markets to prohibit cosmetic animal testing and trade, consistent with EU model.

The organisations have also launched a collaboration to develop capability across companies and regulatory authorities so safety decisions for cosmetics are based on non-animal approaches. The society is also working to build long-term capability by investing in the training of future safety scientists in non-animal ‘next generation’ risk assessments.

PETA has also recognised Unilever’s ongoing work on alternatives to animal testing, and its commitment to promoting their adoption worldwide. It will now list Unilever as a ‘company working for regulatory change’.

www.unilever.com / www.hsi.org / www.peta.org