Unilever supports ban on animal testing for cosmetics

Unilever has formed a new collaboration with animal protection group HSI to support a ban on animal testing in the cosmetics industry.

Under the collaboration, Unilever will support HSI’s global #BeCrueltyFree initiative, which aims to enact legislative reform in the world’s major beauty markets to stop cosmetic animal testing and trade in line with the current EU model.

The partners initiated a multi-year open collaboration to build capability across companies and regulatory authorities, ensuring that the safety decisions for cosmetics are taken on non-animal approaches.

They will also invest in the training of future safety scientists in the field of non-animal next generation risk assessments.

Unilever chief research and development (R&D) officer David Blanchard said: “Animal testing for cosmetics has been banned in the EU since 2013, and 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.”

Unilever’s beauty and personal care brand Dove recently received cruelty-free accreditation from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

With the recognition, PETA’s cruelty-free logo will appear on Dove packaging from January next year.