Our requirements

We are here to look out for you.

A product must meet a number of requirements before it can be labelled with Asthma Allergy Nordic or The Blue Label. The requirements for the products we label reflect the desire to help people who are already affected by skin allergies as well as those who want to minimise the risk of developing skin allergies.

Basically, allergy is considered to be a personal problem. Despite the fact that the legislation often articulates and stipulates that products shall be safe, you rarely see statutory requirements in connection with the regulation of allergenic substances. For example, perfume is one of the most common causes of allergies, but it is still allowed to add perfume to many products. However, if individual substances set off a massive reaction among the general population, the legislation may well interfere and set requirements for the substances. In such cases, our allergy labelling will have phased out these substances at a much earlier stage.

With our special focus on allergies, we are always one step ahead in order to protect you and your family. Our requirements go beyond the legislation in the field of allergies and apply to both the content of the products and what must be included in the label of cosmetics, personal care and laundry and cleaning detergents.

The purpose of allergy labelling is to:

• Help you and your loved ones make an informed choice
• Minimise the risk of more people developing contact dermatitis
• Make it easier to avoid certain substances if you have allergies
• Create greater incentives for manufacturers to develop allergy-friendly products for the consumers

At the bottom of the page, you will find our criteria documents, where you will find detailed information about our requirements for the various types of products.

Allergens

Potentially, many substances may cause allergies. However, some substances cause allergies more frequently than others. Our allergy labelling demands that substances that have caused allergies in several persons are not present in products carrying our label.

As an example, the allergy labelling does not permit the following ingredients:

• Synthetic and natural perfume
• Etheric oils
• Addition of formaldehyde and substances that may release formaldehyde
• The preservatives Kathon, MI and MCI

At the same time, we demand that certain natural extracts, such as Aloe Vera, shall be purified of specific allergenic substances, and that natural contaminants with, for example, rosin and metals shall not exceed our threshold limit values. The threshold limit values are set to protect the majority of people who are allergic to these substances.

Substances that may cause irritation

Irritation is not an allergy, but if the skin is irritated, there is a greater risk of getting allergies. Your skin may become irritated in many ways, including contact with a variety of chemical substances. Therefore, we demand that these substances are only present in low quantities in products with our label. The permitted amount depends on the product's other ingredients and on the use of the product – for example, whether it is washed off or remains on the skin. The individual product is always subjected to a concrete assessment.

Full insight into product ingredients

To assess whether a product is permitted to carry Asthma-Allergy Denmark's Blue Label or the label of Asthma Allergy Nordic, we need information about all the ingredients contained in the product as well as their concentration and function. In personal care products and laundry and cleaning detergents, the manufacturer will typically know all the ingredients and will send us the necessary information.

For other products, such as nappies, toilet paper and face masks, the manufacturer will rarely know all the ingredients of the product because the product consists of various parts that often come from subcontractors who considers the content confidential. In some products, there is also a risk that residues of chemicals used in the production will end up in the finished product. Therefore, we collect information about the materials, processes and chemicals used in all stages of the production in order to be able to assess the final product. We always go through all stages of the production chain. In this way, we can guarantee that everything in the product lives up to our requirements – from the inside out.    

Learn about our criteria

The criteria for allergy labelling are divided into the different types of products that we label. Therefore, we do not have one single criteria document with all our requirements. If you would like more in-depth information about our criteria, you will find it here.