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HerbalEGram: Volume 7, Number 9, September 2010
Whole Foods Market Raises Standards for Organic Labeling on Personal Care Products Sold in its Stores
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In November 2009, Whole Foods Market presented the US
Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) with
written comments decrying the absence of government regulation of organic
personal care products. “The organic personal care marketplace is currently
very much a ‘Wild West’ in which anyone can make an organic claim without
substantiation or certification,” the statement said (E. Leader-Smith, e-mail,
August 16, 2010).
With a very few exceptions, all foods labeled organic must
be certified under the USDA’s National Organics Program (NOP). Personal care
products, such as cosmetics, bath items, and other skincare goods, can be certified organic by the USDA, but are not
required to be in order to make an organic label claim.1
That will all change in June of 2011—at least for those
organic personal care manufacturers who hope to do business with the Austin,
Texas-based natural food retail giant Whole Foods.2 The company recently announced its plan to privately sheriff the organic
personal care industry until federal regulation is in place. With the exception
of supplements, items sold in the “Whole Body” section of the store whose
labels make organic claims will have to prove the legitimacy of such claims by obtaining either USDA NOP certification or NSF International’s American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) 305 certification.2 NSF
International is a Michigan-based non-governmental, non-profit organization
that develops widely recognized national standards in the areas of food, water,
indoor air, and the environment.
Because Whole Foods sales account for such a significant
segment of the organic retail industry, the company’s decision is likely to
reverberate far beyond the walls of its own stores.
“I’m really proud of our company,” said Joe Dickson, Whole
Foods quality standards coordinator, “that we’ve drawn the line here and made a
decision that’s going to effect so much change” (oral communication, August 16,
2010).
According to Dickson, who also sits on the NOSB, Whole Foods
already had a strict set of standards in place for what it would allow into its
personal care aisles. “We screen every ingredient for safety and naturalness
and environmental issues,” said Dickson. Still, the organic claims made on some
products were anywhere from “marginally confusing to outwardly deceptive,” he
said. “A customer walking from produce into Whole Body should not have to
adjust their expectations or definitions.”
According to the USDA’s website, a food product masquerading
as organic could result in a penalty of up to $11,000 for its manufacturer.3
Personal care producers have not lived in fear of any such repercussion from
the NOP.
The USDA separates organic certification into 4 categories.
To qualify as “100% organic,” the product should contain only organic materials
(with the exception of water and salt). “Organic” products must be comprised of
95% organic ingredients—again, save water and salt—and the other 5% must appear
on the National List of Approved Substances (which are presently geared toward
food, not personal care products, according to Dickson). “Made with organic
ingredients” products must be 70% organic; they can list up to three of the
organic ingredients on the principal display panel of the product’s packaging,
but they may not use the USDA Organic Seal. Products made up of less than 70%
organic ingredients can label the individual USDA-certified organic ingredients
as such in the ingredient panel and are not permitted to use the USDA Organic
Seal.3
According to the USDA’s website, “[t]he operations which
produce the organic agricultural ingredients, the handlers of these
agricultural ingredients, and the manufacturer of the final product must all be
certified by a USDA-accredited certifying agent.”4 The site lists
more than 50 domestic accredited certifying agents, including Quality Assurance
International (QAI), an agency with whom NSF is partnering for certification.5
According to Dickson, the new ANSI 305 certification will be
comparable to the USDA’s “made with organic ingredients” certification, except
that it makes “allowances for ingredients and processes that are specific to
personal care” that the USDA does not. In fact, Whole Foods held off on its
change in protocol until the ANSI 305 standard was completely developed by the NSF
Joint Committee on Organic Personal Care—a committee on which Dickson served.
“We wanted to wait for that to be done,” said Dickson, “so
that those manufacturers who still wanted to make a label claim that their
product contains organic botanical ingredients or organic essential oils had a
framework in which to do that.”
It is inevitable that some companies will repackage some or
all of their current line in claim-free containers, especially because all
products under brand names incorporating the word “organic” or “organics” must
be USDA NOP or ANSI 305 certified organic to remain on Whole Foods shelves (E.
Leader-Smith, e-mail, August 26, 2010). As a result, Aubrey Organics has a
second brand in the works called “Aubrey.”1
Lily Organics, whose
skincare line is featured in select Whole Foods stores, is in the unique
position of being a USDA-certified organic grower and handler, in addition to
receiving USDA organic certification for one of its products, Organic Kukui
Sensitive Facial Oil Treatment, according to Lily Morgan, the company’s
founder. Morgan says Whole Foods’ announcement did not influence her company’s
decisions regarding organic certification (e-mail, August 20, 2010).
“We have had these same high standards since 1986: made
fresh weekly, no synthetic chemicals, ever, and pure plant organic
ingredients,” said Morgan, who plans to submit 6 more products for USDA NOP
certification in the near future. Morgan does not anticipate seeking NSF’s ANSI
305 certification for any of her products, in part because a mere copy of the
ANSI 305 standard guidelines costs $100. Certification through the NSF and USDA-accredited
certifying agency QAI runs an additional $2000 to “several thousand” more,
depending on the number of products certified, said QAI’s general manager,
Jaclyn Bowen (oral communication, August 23, 2010).
Dickson said the USDA is considering Whole Foods’
recommendation for federal regulation of organic personal care products. “They
did indicate this year that they are talking pretty productively to the FDA,
which shares jurisdiction for personal care products. Our hope is the two
agencies will work together to figure out where everyone’s turf is.”
The Organic Trade Association (OTA) lists both the NOP and
ANSI 305 standards among its “Best Practices” for the interim, but says it will
be “looking more closely at these private standards as it moves forward toward
a federal standard” (B. Haumann, e-mail, August 26, 2010).
Per NSF International’s website, if the government should
become active in regulating organic personal care claims in the future, “the US
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circular A-119 would encourage them to
rely on the consensus national standard, which in this case is NSF/ANSI 305.”6
—Ashley Lindstrom
Photo captions in order of appearance:
1) Store front of Whole Foods Market in Austin, Texas. ©2010 Whole Foods Market, Inc. 2) Whole Foods Market's "Whole Body" section containing personal care products. ©2010 Whole Foods Market, Inc. References
1. Well,
is it organic or not? The New York Times.
July 14, 2010. Available at: www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/fashion/15skin.html?_r=1&ref=organic_food.
Accessed August 13, 2010.
2. Whole
Foods Market Press Room. Whole Foods Market website. Available at: www.wholefoodsmarket.com/pressroom/blog/2010/06/18/whole-foods-market%C2%AE-and-personal-care-suppliers-bring-authenticity-to-organic-labeling/.
Accessed August 12, 2010.
3. Organic
Labeling and Marketing Information. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service
website. Available at: www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3004446&acct=nopgeninfo.
Accessed August 19, 2010.
4. Cosmetics,
Body Care Products, and Personal Care Products. USDA Agricultural Marketing
Service website. Available at: www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5068442&acct=nopgeninfo.
Accessed August 19, 2010.
5. USDA
Accredited Certifying Agents. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service website.
Available at: www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateJ&navID=NationalOrganicProgram&leftNav=NationalOrganicProgram&page=NOPACAs&description=USDA%20Accredited%20Certifying%20Agents&acct=nopgeninfo.
Accessed August 19, 2010.
6. Questions & Answers
about the New American National Standard for Personal Care Products “Made with
Organic” Ingredients. NSF International website. Available at: www.nsf.org/media/enews/documents/Made%20with%20Organic%20FAQ_03%2017%2009.pdf.
Accessed August 19, 2010.
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