What do "parfum" and "aroma" mean on an ingredient list?

The short version

Two sets of rules matter here, and they use different words. The EU regulation text names “parfum” and “aroma”. The US rule lets a maker write “Fragrance”. We work from documents and have not tested any products. Everything below is quoted or closely tied to the sources listed on this page.

What the EU text says

Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, from the EU Publications Office (retrieved 2026-11-14), says: “Perfume and aromatic compositions and their raw materials shall be referred to by the terms ‘parfum’ or ‘aroma’.” The same passage continues that “the presence of substances, the mention of which is required under the column ‘Other’ in Annex III, shall be indicated in the list of ingredients in addition to the terms parfum or aroma.”

Three things follow from that wording.

• “Parfum” is the word the text uses for perfume and aromatic compositions and their raw materials.
• “Aroma” is the parallel term. The text gives the two as alternatives, “parfum” or “aroma”, and the excerpts say nothing more about how they differ.
• Some substances are named separately. Those are the ones whose mention is required under the “Other” column of Annex III. They appear on the list in addition to the term, not instead of it.

The regulation’s surrounding text on ingredient lists also says they are established in descending order of weight at the time ingredients are added, and that ingredients under 1 % may be listed in any order after those above 1 %. So position on the list says little about how much of the fragrance composition is present, beyond that rough split.

The fragrance allergen amendment

Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 (retrieved 2026-11-14) amends Annex III “as regards labelling of fragrance allergens in cosmetic products.” Its recitals restate the rule above: perfume and aromatic compositions are referred to as “parfum” or “aroma” and “complemented by substances the mention of which is required under the column ‘Other’ in Annex III.” They also say that, at the time of writing, 24 fragrance allergens were individually labelled, and that the amendment adds individual labelling for further allergens when concentration exceeds 0,001 % in leave-on products and 0,01 % in rinse-off products. The recitals give a transition period of 3 and 5 years, respectively, for new products and products already on the market. We did not read the Annex tables, so this page does not list which substances are named. Our guide to EU fragrance allergens and the one on fragrance allergen names on labels cover that topic.

What the US text says

The FDA’s Fragrances in Cosmetics page (retrieved 2026-11-11) says a cosmetic marketed to consumers must have an ingredient list, and “in most cases, each ingredient must be listed individually. But under U.S. regulations, fragrance and flavor ingredients can be listed simply as ‘Fragrance’ or ‘Flavor.’”

The rule is 21 CFR 701.3 on eCFR (retrieved 2026-11-14). It requires ingredients “in descending order of predominance, except that fragrance or flavor may be listed as fragrance or flavor.” It adds that no ingredient may be designated as fragrance or flavor “unless it is within the meaning of such term as commonly understood by consumers.”

Both words can stand for mixtures

The FDA says the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act “is not allowed to be used to force a company to tell ‘trade secrets,’” and that “fragrance and flavor formulas are complex mixtures of many different natural and synthetic chemical ingredients.” It calls them the kinds of cosmetic components most likely to be trade secrets.

That statement is about the US. For the EU, the sources say “parfum” and “aroma” cover compositions and their raw materials, and that certain Annex III substances are named on top. Read together, the sources support this cautious reading: a single “Fragrance”, “parfum” or “aroma” entry can cover a composition of several ingredients, and the word alone does not itemize them. The sources do not give a count or a list for any product.

What this means for a fragrance-free check

Our test for this site is that a product passes only if its published ingredient list contains no fragrance, parfum, aroma, perfume, essential oils or fragrance chemicals. That is our rule, not a legal definition. We treat “parfum” and “aroma” as fragrance words for it because the EU text uses them for perfume and aromatic compositions.

Front-of-pack wording is a separate matter. The FDA page says even some products labeled “unscented” may contain fragrance ingredients, because a manufacturer “may add just enough fragrance to mask the unpleasant smell of other ingredients.” See fragrance-free vs unscented and the wider guide to reading an ingredient list for parfum and aroma. The trade-secret side is covered in FDA fragrance labeling and trade secrets.

What we could not say

The sources we read do not cover UK rules, other countries, or the term INCI. We say so rather than fill the gap. They also do not say what is inside any specific fragrance entry.

A plain line about fragrance

Fragrance is not inherently harmful, and this site is not against it. The issue is narrower: for people who react to fragrance, what the label says, and what it leaves out, decides whether they can tell it is there. Questions about your own reactions belong with a clinician or an allergy or dermatology society.