Summary of INTERNATIONAL FLAVORS & FRAGRANCES INC

Item 2.02. Results of Operations and Financial Condition

Attached and being furnished hereby as Exhibit 99.1 is a copy of a press release of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. ("IFF" or the "Company") dated February 5, 2009 reporting IFF's financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2008.

Non-GAAP financial measures: To supplement the Company's financial results presented in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP"), the Company uses, and has also included in the attached press release or as part of its webcast, certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation, as a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures as disclosed by the Company may also be calculated differently from similar measures disclosed by other companies. To ease the use and understanding of our supplemental non-GAAP financial measures, the Company includes the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

The Company discloses, and management internally monitors, the sales performance of international operations on a basis that eliminates the positive or negative effects that result from translating foreign currency sales into U.S. dollars. Management uses this constant dollar measure because management believes that it enhances the assessment of the sales performance of the Company's international operations and the comparability between reporting periods.

The Company uses non-GAAP financial operating measures which exclude: in 2008,
(i) employee separation and restructuring charges; (ii) the benefit of an insurance recovery; and (iii) costs for the implementation of the global shared services plan; and in 2007, (i) the gain on the sale of land; (ii) a curtailment charge resulting from changes made to the Company's U.S. defined benefit pension plan in 2007; and in both the 2007 and 2008 periods the benefit of favorable tax rulings relating to prior periods. Management uses, and will use, these non-GAAP financial measures in evaluating actual performance for the reporting period in relation to historical performance, both for the Company alone and against other companies, as well as in assessing management's own performance. The Company also calculates EBITDA amounts (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) as an additional indicator of its financial performance. The Company also discloses, from time to time, non-GAAP effective tax rates, which exclude the effect of the benefits of tax rulings relating to prior years, as additional information in seeking to assess and compare our tax rates without the benefit of particular tax rulings related to prior periods.

Management believes that given the special nature of these items, including information without the impact of these items, provides added information and an added financial metric, for both management and investors, to evaluate and understand the Company's operational performance and effective tax rate, as applicable, which assists management and may assist investors in evaluating the Company's period to period financial results. A material limitation of these financial measures is that such measures do not reflect actual GAAP amounts; employee separation and restructuring charges, and costs for the implementation of the global shared services plan, include actual cash outlays; the gain on the disposition of land includes actual cash inflows; the pension curtailment loss amount reflects an actual GAAP expense; EBITDA excludes actual cash and non-cash accounting costs; and tax benefits and the insurance recovery reflect actual accounting and cash benefits realized. Management compensates for such limitations by clarifying that these measures are only one operating metric used for analysis and planning purposes and by providing the corresponding GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP financials measures.