As pressure grows on cosmetics companies to use more environmentally friendly ingredients and packaging, there has been a profound increase in organic/natural and eco claims on “green” beauty products. Terms such as botanical, natural, green, organic, and active naturals are used. Among these terms, only the term “organic” has legal requirements for its use.
There are different standards in the United States and in other countries about what “organic” means. This column will discuss the meaning of the term “organic” and the various organic certifications.
Origin of the Term
The term “organic” as currently used was coined in 1940 by J.I. Rodale, who founded the Rodale publishing empire with the magazine “Organic Farming and Gardening.” In 1992 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the Organic Label and its accompanying standards; however, this “organic seal” applied mainly to agricultural foods and practices.
Organic Regulation
There was no recognized “organic” label for personal skin care products until 2002. In May of that year, the USDA made it clear, in a policy statement about the National Organic Program (NOP), that producers of nonfood products containing agricultural ingredients were eligible to seek certification. This policy allowed producers of nonfood items to display the iconic round, green “USDA Organic” seal to attest to “authentic” organic claims on certifiers' labels.
In April 2004, however, the USDA issued a surprising Guidance Statement reversing this position, indicating that producers of personal care products would not be eligible to seek certification and had to cease use of the green symbol. There was wavering on this decision until August 2005, when the Organic Consumers Association, representing more than 500,000 members, won a major victory in a lawsuit against the USDA. The outcome of the lawsuit was that nonfood products could now be certified with the organic seal.
This seal offers two kinds of organic certification. If a product contains 95% organic ingredients, it can be labeled as organic. If it contains between 75% and 94% organic ingredients, it can be labeled as “made with XX% organic ingredients.” The nonorganic ingredients must also be screened to ensure they conform to the organic food standards.
Regulatory Bodies
The USDA seal is the most common, but as it really applies to food products, many new standards have been created; however, no one standard has been universally agreed upon. There are various standards that differ from country to country. In addition, some of these standards were created by for-profit businesses that will certify products for a fee. Obviously, there is an inherent bias in this arrangement.
In Europe, one such organization that offers certification is the European Cosmetics Standards Working Group, which has developed the Cosmetics Organic Standard (COSMOS). For more information, visit www.cosmos-standard.org. Another popular certifying organization is NaTrue from Germany (www.natrue.org). This association signed an equivalency agreement with another certifying body in the United States known as the Natural Products Association. Now that these organizations have teamed up, they are a leading certification organization in China.
NaTrue and COSMOS appear to be the most popular certifying bodies in the United States but certification is a competitive field, and every certifying organization wants to claim to have the recognized standard. Other certifying bodies in the United States include NSF International, which was one of the first, and OASIS, which was created by a coalition of beauty product manufacturers.
Each certifying body has its own standards of what constitutes “organic,” and there are discrepancies among them. For example, some standards exclude products originating from livestock that have had any genetic engineering, whereas other standards do not.
Organic Topical Products
Although there are no long-term studies documenting the effects of using topical organic products or ingredients, consumers of organic products are typically as interested in what products do not contain as in what they do contain. The intent of the organic label is to assure consumers that the key cleansing and conditioning ingredients are derived from organically grown plants rather than conventionally grown plants, synthetic chemicals, or petroleum byproducts. In addition, topical organic products exclude or minimize any ingredients that could be considered potentially harmful to people, animals, waterways, or the environment. The rules about which ingredients can and cannot be included vary by regulatory body.
The Precautionary Principle
Sometimes certain ingredients are excluded from products on the basis of research. In other cases, exclusions are based on the “precautionary principle,” which holds that until the cumulative effects of exposures to a broad range of ingredients can be fully assessed, it is best to err on the side of caution and limit use. For example, although many chemical ingredients used in cosmetics are widely considered to be safe, some safety factors have not been fully studied.