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IFF

At IFF (NYSE: IFF), an industry leader in food, beverage, scent, health and biosciences, science and creativity meet to create essential solutions for a better world – from global icons to unexpected innovations and experiences.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Advanced Materials Act

13 Jan 2026

IFF welcomes the European Commissions Advanced Materials Act (AMA) as a strategic opportunity to strengthen Europes industrial base and accelerate the uptake of sustainable, bio based advanced materials. As a global innovation leader with a strong European footprint, IFF emphasises the need for a predictable, innovation friendly regulatory framework that enables market access for new materials and recognises their sustainability advantages. The AMAs objectives to reinforce R&I capacities and support industrial deployment align closely with IFFs contribution to EU competitiveness and climate objectives. To deliver these objectives, IFF proposes the following policy actions: Update EU definitions for all polymer categories to properly classify advanced bio based and biodegradable materials. Ensure access to sustainably sourced European feedstocks and consider an EU wide monitoring system for crop uses. Establish technology neutral sustainability criteria to help ensure a fair, lifecycle based assessment of all materials, supporting circularity and resilience. Set bio based content targets and EU wide end of waste criteria for bio based materials. Align the AMA with the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and forthcoming Biotech Act. A more detailed brief is in the attached document. Thank you!
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Response to Circular Economy Act

6 Nov 2025

IFF welcomes the objectives of the proposed Circular Economy Act to accelerate Europes transition towards a circular, resource-efficient, and resilient economy. IFF is an innovative market leader which creates products of value across industry sectors and that strives for innovative solutions to lower carbon emissions and environmental impact. IFF fully supports the establishment of harmonised rules that enable the free movement of circular products. However, to achieve the EUs climate goals, the Circular Economy Act must also recognise and support though dedicated provisions the role of bio-based materials, biotechnology, and enzymes as enablers of circularity and decarbonisation. There are crucial bottlenecks that hinder the valorisation of secondary raw materials and impede market development for biobased materials: the lack of biobased content targets for production, the absence of recognition for recycling and industrial composting of biobased materials, the limited acknowledgement of the role of enzymes in enhancing industrial process efficiency, and the missing end-of-waste criteria for biomaterials. These technical and logistic challenges are validated by the disconnect between decades of incentives (both in the EU and US) and the lack of significant commercialized innovations derived from them. As such, primary feedstocks should be included in the strategy, provided they meet important sustainability criteria. The Circular Economy Act should complement other future policy initiatives and legislation, such as the Biotech Act and the Bioeconomy Strategy, as well as product-specific laws like PPWR. This is important in order not to undermine investment and innovation in circular biobased solutions. Please find a more detailed explanation of our views in the attached. Thank you.
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Meeting with Kristin Schreiber (Director Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs) and

6 Nov 2025 · Challenges and needs across the value chain for advancing safer and more sustainable chemistry

Response to Food and Feed Safety Simplification Omnibus

14 Oct 2025

As a leading innovator in fermentation products which improve food and feed, IFF calls on the European Commission to clarify in the forthcoming Omnibus that food and feed produced with GMMs does not fall under the scope of the GM Food and Feed legislation (1829/2033). The current situation creates market disruption and uncertainty for the entire food and feed value chain, and jeopardises the further development and market access of sustainable solutions that are beneficial for humans, livestock and the environment. EU Regulation for GM Food or Feed should thus not apply to products produced with GMMs in contained use, since there is no live GMM present in the fermentation products that are marketed in food or feed products. The upcoming omnibus should also take a broader approach to clarify and streamline classification and authorisation processes for biotech-derived food and feed products by: Including scientific advice as part of the EFSA pre-submission advice Aligning feed additives authorisation procedure with other legislation by removing the mandatory 10-year renewal procedure Streamlining feed additives authorisation procedures by tailoring data requirements to the application type Removing the 6-month penalty for non-notification of studies Clarifying the status of feed additives intended for export only Clarifying the regulatory status of certain uses of food cultures Please find attached IFF's position statement.
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Meeting with Antonella Rossetti (Cabinet of Commissioner Christophe Hansen)

3 Jul 2025 · Presentation of the company and exchange of views on impact of EU initiatives on their products

Response to Towards a Circular, Regenerative and Competitive Bioeconomy

23 Jun 2025

IFF welcomes the European Commissions Call for Evidence and its plan to adopt a new Strategy to position the bioeconomy as a significant accelerator of Europes economic growth and revival, rural resilience and welfare, and sustainability targets. In the attached submission, IFF further outlines how: this strategy should also support access to sustainably sourced biomass in Europe as a key horizontal enabler for the bioeconomy; enzymes should be safeguarded, so they can deliver on enhancing resource and industrial process efficiency; this strategy and forthcoming legislations and policies should be agile and flexible to keep up with the fast pace of future innovation; the EU should create a coherent set of policies that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship. IFF welcomes the opportunity to raise these critical needs that can boost EUs Bioeconomy.
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Response to Biotech Act

11 Jun 2025

IFF supports the overall goal of the Biotech Act, to ensure that the EU makes the most of the biotech revolution for the benefit of society, the environment and the economy. This is in line with IFFs business strategy to innovate, manufacture and commercialize biobased products which improve the sustainability footprint of many industries, without compromising on performance. The scope of the Biotech Act should be all-encompassing, to include industrial biotech and biomanufacturing, to fully reap the benefits of biotech across multiple sectors including for example chemicals, biomaterials as well as food and beverages. While we support all the targeted goals of the Biotech Act listed in the Call for Evidence, we are particularly excited about creating a simplified EU regulatory environment along the lifecycle - which will enable industrial biomanufacturers to produce at commercial scale in the EU and swiftly enter the EU market at globally competitive prices. The current industry reality is that many biobased innovations are frequently delayed, or do not make it to production and deployment at scale, because of a cumbersome and outdated regulatory environment which is not equipped to handle cutting-edge innovations which in turn stifles investment and delays or prevents market access of innovative sustainable solutions. As demonstrated in our attached case studies, it is crucial to assess horizontally EU legislation and policies related to the biotech sector to identify and address unintended biases against biobased innovations, which consequently end up favoring the status quo (fossil-based economy). The fast-paced biotech sector requires updated regulations that ensure fair competition among sectors. IFF supports a comprehensive scrutiny process for the EU to evaluate relevant legislations impacting products throughout their lifecycle - from their inception, R&D & scale up phase, along the product life cycle, to end of life. The outcome should guide the necessary legislative amendments to ensure a level-playing field between fossil-based incumbents and biobased innovation (for example, sustainability assessments for both fossil and biobased production with relevant science-based criteria). The biobased sector is poised for significant expansion, requiring substantial investments from both public and private sectors to ensure its success in the EU, mirroring developments in other regions globally. The EUs CBE-JU has excelled in supporting the development of innovations in industrial biotech, but it will need a significant funding boost to take the Bioeconomy to the next level of industrial scale. Two selected examples in the attached document serve to highlight critical issues which we would like to see addressed in the Biotech Act and related legislation and policies. Complementing the attached case studies, we believe that the Biotech Act must create a policy framework that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship, and which replaces hazard-based provisions across relevant EU legislations, with a risk-based approach without compromising on neither consumer safety nor environmental safeguards. Going forward, and in alignment with related dossiers such as the Circular Economy Act, the Clean Industrial Deal, the Bioeconomy Strategy and REACH, the Biotech Act must aim to retain innovation in the EU. It should channel this innovation towards addressing its competitiveness and sustainability goals by equipping it with evidence-based sustainability assessments and risk management procedures. This will provide industry with the necessary planning security to invest in and contribute to EU growth.
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Meeting with Emmanuelle Maire (Head of Unit Environment) and FIPRA International SRL

7 May 2025 · Natural polymers

Response to EU Life sciences strategy

17 Apr 2025

IFF is a global leader with 30% footprint in Europe, providing innovative B2B solutions for food, beverage, health, biosciences and scent sectors. Our ingredient products deliver sustainable and competitive solutions for our customers - without compromising on performance. Our offering enables many industrial sectors to align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the European Commission's future Life Science Strategy, namely SDGs related to innovation solutions for climate action, responsible production & consumption, good health and well-being, combatting hunger, and life on land. IFF sees significant opportunities for addressing these global societal challenges mentioned above and therefore welcomes the European Commissions initiative to develop a comprehensive, cross-sectoral, and forward-looking strategy for European biotechnology. To ensure the competitiveness of the EU in this sector, there is an opportunity to act now, with the EU Life Sciences Strategy proposing concrete actions, in close alignment and consistent with other ongoing policy developments regarding the Biotech Act and the EU Bioeconomy strategy. IFF would like to see the following issues addressed in the LSS (in coordination with the other two policy files), which could in turn encourage the deployment of the EU Bioeconomy. Ensure a reliable supply of sustainable feedstock for the EU bioeconomy: o The supply of biobased feedstock in the EU is uncertain for current and future IFF innovations which rely on the use of sugars locally sourced close to production sites. o We need a policy framework for the sustainable production of industrial sugars and renewable feedstock, to address the ambitions of the EU Bioeconomy. o Attractive incentives for farmers will need to be part of this framework to produce reliable supplies of sugar for industrial (non-food) use. Provide industry with clear and science-based sustainability criteria for products throughout the life cycle. o Unbiased criteria for both fossil and biobased products can contribute to developing a preferred level playing field for a sustainable bioeconomy Currently, fossil products are not subject to sustainability assessment Sustainability performance of biobased products not comparable with fossil products (Product Environment Footprint PEF doesnt recognize biogenic carbon) Scaling-up biobased innovation o Despite powerful instruments such as the CBE for scaling up the biobased sector, the funding is not large enough to accelerate the huge deployment needed to displace fossil industries. These innovations and building new capacity are high investments and struggle to compete with a fossil industry that is already available at scale (cheaper) o Funding programs should be accessible to proposals which use plant sugars for industrial uses, by thoroughly assessing the entire life cycle of products, and ensuring they have an overall positive environmental footprint.
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Meeting with Olivér Várhelyi (Commissioner) and

18 Mar 2025 · Biotech

Meeting with Emmanuelle Maire (Head of Unit Environment)

5 Feb 2025 · Bioeconomy strategy, biobased plastics

Meeting with Didier Millerot (Head of Unit Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union) and Novonesis A/S and Association of Manufacturers and Formulators of Enzyme Products

9 Jan 2025 · Sustainable Finance framework, taxonomy

Meeting with David Cormand (Member of the European Parliament) and European Federation of Essential Oils

22 Oct 2024 · REACH

Meeting with Florika Fink-Hooijer (Director-General Environment) and L'Oréal and Beiersdorf

31 Jan 2024 · Short speech connecting the topic of cosmetics with environmental aspects at the “Value of Beauty” launching event.

Response to Review of the requirements for packaging and feasibility of measures to prevent packaging waste

24 Apr 2023

IFF, an innovator in sustainable solutions in the food, beverage, health, biosciences and fragrances industries welcomes the publication of the proposal on PPWR and its ambition to make packaging more sustainable by reducing overpackaging, and increasing recycling rates and re-use. IFF calls on the Commission and Member States to also make sure that industries focused on material innovation which are developing sustainable solutions for the packaging sector are equally encouraged to innovate for the EU. We therefore wish to highlight the following key elements which will help enable a strong circular economy as a key lever for the net-zero transition: - Open the recycled content target to biobased content - Define clearly plastic and natural polymer These two points are further explained in the attached position paper.
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Response to Policy framework on biobased, biodegradable and compostable plastics

26 Oct 2021

IFF welcomes a dedicated policy framework to ensure the EU benefits from its leading innovation in sustainable biobased materials, while addressing any specificities for BBP and BDCPs. IFF developed a first of its kind technology for manufacturing polysaccharide materials from glucose chains extracted from sugar beet. These materials can either directly replace certain plastic polymers (i.e. acrylics) or are substitutes in many formulated products across a broad range of industrial and consumer applications (packaging, hygiene wipes, coatings, homecare, etc.). This is due to their unique properties of targeted solubility, inherent material biodegradability and compostability of formulated products in various environments. Because many biobased polymers like these don’t fit the current definitions laid out in policy, the Commission should consider expanding this policy framework’s scope. IFF polymers are identical in structure to polysaccharides found in nature (mushrooms). Yet, emerging policy definitions for ‘natural polymers’ under for ex. the SUPD Guidelines are selectively focusing on traditional, nature-extracted polysaccharide-type materials (starches or cellulose) - and are overlooking a broad range of new renewably sourced materials derived from modern bioprocesses which could equally fit this definition and provide multiple environmental advantages to its manufacturing. This significantly disadvantages these new materials in EU market adoption and commercialisation– and discourages industry from innovating further in biobased alternatives with advantaged sustainability profiles. Clarify definitions & scope • Future policy must not mis-classify as ‘plastics’ the broad range of sustainable materials which don’t fit the current definitions of ‘natural’, nor ‘fossil’, and instead should consider labelling any ‘biobased’, ‘biodegradable/compostable’ – or even ‘fermentation-based’ materials as biobased ‘materials’. • Mislabelling of sustainable materials as ‘plastics’ in consumer products will mislead the consumer, prevent them from making well-informed sustainable purchases. • Policy should not be prescriptive on applications for BBPs – a prescriptive policy risks becoming outdated (and therefore restrictive) by the fast pace of innovation in this space. Use robust LCA-based models which are fit for biobased products • Policy should ensure LCA methodologies and standards compare functionally equivalent material systems – i.e. comparing apple-to-apples – and equally consider all the environmental and social costs/impacts for fossil-based materials; not just a limited cradle-to-gate approach. • Methods must account for the particularities of biobased products: carbon sequestration, positive effects of land use change on rural economies, the biobased-industry being a less mature sector, future innovative improvements, biodegradability in various ecosystems, promotion of consumer behaviour change, etc. • Consistency and coherence on methodologies for sustainability criteria with other policy instruments is key (EU Taxonomy, the RED III, Sustainable Products Initiative, Product Environment Footprint). • Biobased materials will also reduce the release of microplastics into the environment (many are soluble and biodegradable). It is critical to get this policy framework right. Commissioner Gabriel referred to the bioeconomy as a ‘key contributor to all dimensions and objectives of the Green Deal’, and these sustainable biopolymers can today already make an impact – also by providing additional opportunities to EU farmers. Yet, if the Commission requires industry to market these as ‘plastics’, then purchasers will prefer to opt for the cheaper, fossil-based plastics option for material choices. Additionally, as innovation in the space is moving fast, the Commission risks missing out on more sustainable products no longer fitting the ’natural’ label, and yet having similar properties – or even more desirable ones.
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