Our Five-Level Safety Assurance Process
We start by sourcing the highest-quality ingredients. Which means that all of our raw materials and formulations are thoroughly evaluated before a product appears on store shelves and before you bring it into your home. Each product formulation must pass our five-level safety assurance process, and we continually re-evaluate ingredients to be responsive to the latest scientific developments and to your feedback. Only then can we be confident that our products are safe and worthy of your trust. This approach is at the heart of Our Safety & Care Commitment to you.
We may be developing the products, but you’re using them every day. This is why our product development depends on hearing from people like you. Want to learn more about the process? Take a look at this series of videos that take you through our five-level safety assurance process.
Level 1: Sourcing Raw Materials
Our heritage as a healthcare company means we look at consumer products through a safety-first lens and always seek to use the highest-quality raw materials. And because our safety standards and sustainability principles are some of the most rigorous in the world, we only partner with suppliers who meet our required standards and principles too. We start with a detailed 12-category questionnaire for our suppliers about each raw material, which is updated periodically to reflect the latest safety data. After we receive the data on a new ingredient, we create a detailed specification for it and test multiple lots to ensure it is of consistent and high quality. Finally, as each lot of ingredients is received by the product manufacturing location, it is sampled and tested to our specifications before we put it in a formulation. We’re also continually evaluating new raw materials as they become available, and we routinely inspect our suppliers to ensure that we continue to create the high-quality products you expect from us.
Level 2: Toxicology Assessment
All of our ingredient choices are supported by the best available science, as well as by research from our global team of toxicologists – scientists who specialize in ingredient safety. In our laboratories, we go well beyond basic screening to ensure that we meet or exceed government regulatory standards for trace materials and ingredients. In addition, our Ingredients Working Group continually monitors new scientific studies to judge whether we need to modify any of our policies and ingredient levels. It’s a rigorous assessment process that leaves nothing to chance.
Level 3: Clinical Evaluation
This part of the process puts our beauty and baby care products under the microscope. In a series of clinical evaluations we’re able to assess the safety of specific concentrations and mixtures of ingredients. Independent scientists and clinicians test formulations for irritation, sensitivity, interactions with sunlight, and other safety considerations. Our commitment to you means that every new formulation is evaluated before it’s available on store shelves.
Level 4: In-Use Testing
Before a product can go to market, we want to thoroughly understand how people will use it in their homes. So we rely on volunteers from all over the world to review and evaluate our products in their homes before they’re available in stores. Our goal is to make sure that you and your family feel right at home with our products and have a terrific experience using them. Think of this part of the process as our link between product development in the laboratory and you at home.
Level 5: Continual Evaluation
Even after you bring our products into your home, we want to hear about your experience with them. We are also available online through our product websites, and via our regional call centers, which are all staffed by product experts. In addition, we carefully track reports of medical events related to the use of our products. In the U.S., for example, we voluntarily submit adverse event reports to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Our product formulations, labeling, packaging, and even instructions for use have been informed by input gathered from listening to consumers like you. Our Ingredients Working Group is also constantly evaluating new data on the ingredients we use in our products.