How to make my SDS look like my supplier’s SDS
When adding a Complex Mixture, such as a Third-party Fragrance or Flavour Formulation, for which the full Composition is not known, it should be added as a Raw Material in Formpak. The information that can be entered will be based upon the supplier’s documentation. The more information available, the better your chances of replicating your supplier’s material properties but this is subject to pitfalls along the way.
Few suppliers will give the full composition of the material and some might only give percentage bands. A further useful Support Article on this is Classification of a Formulation on Formpak v Supplier SDS
The components listed in the documentation will be accumulated values of Regulatory Components, and could be from multiple sources. Natural Complex Substances may not be identically represented in the same way in yours and your supplier’s system. To be able to get closer to your supplier’s values, some manual adjustment may be required, but getting an exact match may still not be possible.
Where to start?
Add a Raw Material, then Add Composition to Raw Material.
Take a look at the Allergen Declaration. If you can identify any Natural Complex Substances (NCS), begin your Composition with the addition of any NCS and their quantities.
From Other Menus > Item Analysis, select the Item Sources Report.
The report will list a breakdown of the Regulatory Composition, with quantities you can refer back to as you model your supplier’s material.
Now go to section 3 of the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) and taking into account the composition already listed in the above report, add further components and quantities to your Raw Material Composition.
Look at the list of IFRA Certificate Components reported by the supplier, adding them to your Raw Material Composition if they’re not already showing in the Item Sources Report. Don’t worry if the Raw Material Composition does not total to 100%. Only the hazardous components above the cut-off threshold will be documented by the supplier, leaving anything below this level or non-hazardous unreported. Save and Check-In.
Adjustment
Create your own Allergen Declaration, SDS and IFRA reports and make a direct component by component comparison. Do all the same hazards appear? Are the levels comparable to the
supplier’s documentation? Natural Complex Substances levels cannot be adjusted, so if
contributions from the NCS are high, they cannot be changed. Other items in the composition
may be altered to reach to the correct accumulated level.
Things to consider and troubleshooting
Some suppliers may have a different cut-off value in their documentation (e.g. <10ppm) from yours when reporting values (e.g. <1ppm). This might lead to unexpected extra/missing components
being reported at low levels in your documentation. This is expected behaviour Raw Material Safety Data Sheets are printed differently from Formulation SDS in Formpak, as Raw
Materials are assumed to be substances. To make the SDS appear more like the Supplier’s Formulation SDS, use Setting ‘Treat Complex Raw Material as Formulation’ in the Composition Tab. For further information, please refer to: Treat Complex Raw Material as a Formulation
Make sure that all the Cosmetic Allergens are reporting correctly. If allergens appear to be missing from your report, refer to: Setting up Cosmetic Allergens for Declarations
March 2024
