Cognis Functional Products is well prepared for REACH

In December 2006 the European Parliament and the Council adopted a new Regulation concerning Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals, titled REACH (Reg. (EC) 1907/2006).

Cognis Functional Products intends to include all its in EU manufactured and imported substances in the pre-registration process, thus enabling us to make maximum use of the transitional periods for "phase-in" substances provided by the pre-registration under REACH. To aid our customers who import Cognis products as ingredients in their final product into the EU, we plan to include in addition all Functional Products substances manufactured at non-EU affiliates of Cognis in our pre-registration process. We are confident that the transitional periods will give us and you, our customer, sufficient time to find satisfactory solutions for the preparation of respective registrations. As a consequence, no REACH related issue is likely to occur using Cognis products from non EU-affiliates as ingredients as the transitional period given in the pre-registration process maintains a REACH related supply reliability till at least December 1, 2010.

Registrations under REACH will include a chemical safety assessment for downstream uses. This is where Cognis will depend on your support and cooperation with regard to the required information on use and exposure.

Use and exposure categories have to be supplemented by standard exposure scenarios in order to prevent the exchange of confidential business information while allowing all partners in the supply chain a maximum degree of flexibility within their operations. Cognis strongly suggests that downstream users start to develop such standard exposure scenarios and would like to encourage you to undertake such activities.

Cognis is in a favourable position: both in the purchase of raw materials and in the production process, we consistently pursue our strategy of sustainable operations. This is supported to a large extent by the use of renewable raw materials based on natural oils and fats. Already in the past, through extensive testing, we have worked continuously on safeguarding the quality and safety of our raw materials and products. Naturally, we will continue to do so in the future.

If you have further questions, please contact us at any time. However, please accept our apologies that we are not in a position at this point in time to respond in detail to the abundance of queries that we continue to receive.