We all need products that work for us, and we need them to be safe. Safe for our bodies, but also safe for the planet.​ And we get the value of transparency about what goes inside them – it’s what we’d expect, too.

Our 5 pillars of protection

Each of the following pillars is represented by an Essity Product Safety employee. Meet the people who work every day to keep you safe.

1. Suppliers

Our bodies deserve the best of the best, so we have high standards for our products. Maria helps us find safe and sustainable suppliers all over the globe. She makes sure we only use materials from suppliers who manufacture ethically and to the highest safety and quality standards.

We don’t just rely on what we’re told, we also require detailed information from our suppliers, so we know exactly what’s what. And we make sure they live up to our Essity Global Supplier Standard – if not, it’s a “thanks, but no thanks” from us.

2. Materials 

We only use high-quality materials to make our products, and we check each material, in each product, regularly and thoroughly.

Gunilla is one of our experts in product safety and regulatory affairs. She keeps a watchful eye on the materials and ingredients in our products, and nothing escapes her gaze. For a material to be given the thumbs up by our vigilant team, it must: 

• Be exactly the right material for where the product will end up, the type of person who will use it, and how long it will be used. 
• Only contain chemicals in safe concentrations, based on the most updated scientific data. 
• Pass our thorough testing procedures which go well beyond what is legally required. 

Every material and product must of course also pass all regulatory rules and existing laws.

3. Testing 

Peter is one of our product safety specialists. He tests our products to the max, to make sure they’re safe. Our testing for each material or product usually goes beyond what’s required by law or guidelines. Our testing program may include things like: 

• Analysing traces of unwanted chemicals, down to extremely low levels 
• Checking in cell culture whether a material is toxic 
• Dermatological tests and/or consumer-use tests for skin tolerance (We don’t mean to brag, but we’re also a co-initiator of the EDANA Stewardship Program, which calls for enhanced requirements for absorbent hygiene products.)

4. Production

We have high standards. Our seamless production process allows us to consistently create high-quality products, meeting key requirements on our big five: quality, health and safety, hygiene and the environment.

Jay helps oversee how our products are made, and ensures we follow strict rules when making our products:

• Only Product-Safety-approved materials and ingredients are used.
• We use a quality control system to make sure all our products end up exactly as we want them. Even the cleaning agents we use in our factories are controlled.
• Our manufacturing processes are fully controlled to make sure everything’s working properly from beginning to end.
• We are externally certified. We follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) or apply additional measures to manage risk in different product areas like cosmetics, products with food contact, or medical devices.

5. Ongoing consumer contact

It’s important to us that our products work for everyone. So we’re always ready to hear what you’ve got to say about our products, good or bad. Every complaint or opinion is important to us.

Jenny knows how important care and attention is. She helps monitor our products to make sure they remain safe, even after they leave the factory. If we receive a complaint, she handles it straight away to work out the best way to fix it. If the complaint is serious, a team of product safety and medical experts is assembled within 48 hours to correct the problem. If – and this happens very rarely – a product has a safety flaw, we let the relevant authorities know, and then plan and execute a recall. And we always keep you in the loop throughout the process.