At Beiersdorf, we are committed to making animal testing obsolete worldwide. For over four decades, developing and promoting modern, alternative testing methods has been an important part of our research. We are convinced that animal testing is not necessary to prove the tolerability and effectiveness of our cosmetic products. That’s why we are committed to setting new industry standards.
Beiersdorf does not conduct any animal testing for cosmetic products and their ingredients and does not have any animal testing done on its behalf – unless, in the very rare case, this is specifically required by law. Long before the EU’s legal requirements came into force, we had already actively foregone animal testing worldwide whenever legally possible.
For us, consumer safety always comes first. As one of the leading researching companies, we have been developing and promoting alternative test methods for over 40 years. We actively contributed to the validation of key methods that are now internationally accepted by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and approved by key regulatory agencies.
Beiersdorf pioneered, among others, one of the world’s first officially approved animal‑free tests: the 3T3 Neutral Red Uptake Phototoxicity Test. Now a global standard, it enables tolerability testing of new ingredients under the influence of UV lights. Since not all safety-related questions are covered by approved alternatives yet, we continue to drive and support future research.
Through collaboration with over 50 renowned partners worldwide, we accelerate the development and global acceptance of innovative, alternative testing methods. A key example is our work with the Fraunhofer Institute, with whom we developed the pioneering 3D reporter skin model. Chemical substances can be tested on 3D cell culture models for toxic effects – quickly, accurately, and animal-free.
Animal testing for cosmetic products has been completely banned in the EU since 2004, and for all the ingredients of these products since 2013. Beiersdorf, of course, is in compliance with these legal requirements and, for a long time before, also actively forewent animal testing worldwide whenever legally possible. We are convinced that animal testing is not necessary to prove the skin tolerability and effectiveness of our cosmetic products.
At Beiersdorf, we do not make claims about our products being “cruelty-free” for several reasons:
That is why we continue to focus on developing and establishing alternatives to animal testing, and collaborating with regulatory authorities around the globe to approve these alternative methods. Our goal: to completely abandon animal testing for cosmetic products worldwide.
Unfortunately, despite years of immense effort from Beiersdorf, the whole industry and science, there still are not alternative methods for all of the safety questions required to be answered by European lawmakers. These particularly include questions about complex systemic effects of substances on the organism under repeated or long-term use. Above all, this has an impact on the development of innovations and the approval of new ingredients for cosmetic products. One thing is absolutely certain, consumer safety always comes first. Especially against this background, the development of alternative test methods through to their validation often takes many years. The effort is very high, since various approval authorities need to check and assess the methods according to identical parameters independently of one another.
Beiersdorf is an advocate for convincing the appropriate lawmakers and authorities to accept the existing cruelty-free testing methods. We support the enormous scientific efforts with considerable manpower and financial resources to close the remaining gaps in the alternative methods.
In China, animal testing is specifically required by law for the official safety certification of certain product categories, such as sunscreen products for example. In this case, the tests are conducted by local, state-authorized institutes. We do not use this data and do not need it for our safety assessments. It is our goal to convince the Chinese authorities that animal testing for cosmetic products is unnecessary. Therefore, we advocate for international acceptance of alternative test methods. For this purpose, we actively share our scientific expertise and have been collaborating with more than 50 stakeholders and partners on this effort worldwide to date. We are in contact with Chinese authorities, both as a company and as a member of industry associations, to work towards a stop of product testing on animals. In addition, we support training programs, which aim at making in vitro testing methods better known in China.
We are actively promoting the development of innovative alternative methods and the international acceptance of existing ones through joint collaboration with more than 50 stakeholders and partners to date. We are intensively involved in various working groups that fall under the European umbrella organization of the cosmetics industry (Cosmetics Europe), cooperate with the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (EURL ECVAM), and support the OECD through the provision of scientific insights. We are an active member of the European Society of Toxicology in Vitro (ESTIV) and, since 2006, a founding member of the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA), a cooperative organization of the European Commission and seven industry sectors. Beiersdorf is a founding member of the not-for-profit organization "International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety (ICCS)," which was established in 2023. Beiersdorf, together with around 40 other companies, suppliers, associations, and NGOs, is taking a leading role in pursuing the goal of advancing global regulatory recognition, technical capabilities, and widespread use of animal-free safety science for cosmetics and skin care products and their ingredients.
