The European Commission has published a roadmap setting out steps to phase out animal testing in chemical safety assessments across a wide range of EU product rules.
The plan describes how animal tests used to check the safety of chemicals for people and the environment would be gradually replaced with “non-animal approaches”, including methods that use artificial intelligence and large datasets, the Commission said in a statement on Monday.
It covers 15 areas, including industrial and consumer chemicals, pesticides and biocides, pharmaceuticals, and food and feed additives.
The roadmap is linked to the EU’s REACH rules — the bloc’s main chemicals legislation — and is listed as a deliverable under the Chemicals Action Plan presented in July 2025.
Officials said the Commission will start implementing the roadmap immediately with EU member states, EU agencies and stakeholders.
What happens next
A high-level conference will be held by 2029 to take stock of progress and discuss increased use of non-animal methods across EU legislation, including REACH, the Commission said.
The roadmap follows a pledge made in 2023 after a European citizens’ initiative called “Save Cruelty-Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe Without Animal Testing.”
Chemical safety assessments are required to ensure products placed on the market are safe, but they still largely rely on animal testing, the Commission noted.
Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, said the roadmap was published as part of efforts to modernise chemical safety assessments while phasing out animal testing.
Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, said the Commission was taking “concrete steps” to end animal testing in chemical safety assessments and would move to implement the roadmap actions.
