Natural & organic standards for personal care: the debate continues.

Organizations band together to stem the tide of unsubstantiated natural and organic claims for personal care products.

The robustly growing natural and organic personal care sector is worth $7.3 billion, according to Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ), Boulder, CO. And more people are jumping on the natural and organic bandwagon every day. "As more people call out for natural alternatives, we're seeing rapid growth in the numbers of natural and organic personal care products on the market," comments Christopher Haack, senior analyst at Mintel International, Chicago, IL.

Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD) shows a 53% increase in new organic and/or all natural product launches in the past two years (from 554 in 2005 to 846 in 2007). Realizing the success of natural and organic products, large retail chains are partnering with natural and organic manufacturers to offer such products under an exclusive and limited time period. Such is the case with Walgreens and the Yes To Carrots brand, as well as Target with its Erbaviva line of products.

Other mainstream companies are utilizing natural ingredients in their brands and opting for certification to differentiate them from the competition. Mr. Haack goes on to comment that "the recent drive toward healthy and green living has consumers placing a high degree of trust in the 'all-natural' claim for personal care products."

The appeal of natural and organic personal care products stretches to both men and women, but women are typically the main users. Mintel also sees Hispanics as a growing market for natural and organic personal care. In fact, 74% of their total personal care product purchases were classified as being natural and organic, according to Mintel's research.

Formed in 2001, U.K.-based Organic Monitor, a business research and consulting company, specializes in the global organic and related product industries. It predicts the most important development this year will be the introduction of European standards of natural and organic cosmetics. "The leading certification agencies in Europe have been working on harmonization of private standards for over a year. The European standards were unveiled in June 2008 and will be implemented by the end of the year," the organization says. "This development would give certified natural and organic cosmetic products uniform logos for the first time. The successful implementation of these standards could pave the way for EU regulations for natural and organic cosmetics, similar to those for organic foods."

Despite this development, most of the action, Organic Monitor points out, is occurring in North America. Ann Arbor, Ml-based NSF International, which has been developing its natural personal care standards for several years, finally introduced them this past spring. At the same time, the Organic and Sustainability Industry Standards (OASIS) for beauty and personal care products was formed and includes manufacturers like Aveda and Hain Celestial. As more and more products claim to be "organic," the potential for consumer confusion also rises, OASIS claims. This is compounded by the existence of disparate regulatory seals in the marketplace.

OASIS was created by a group of concerned trade professionals representing the beauty and personal care industry supply chain. It is the first U.S. organic standard for the beauty and personal care industry.

"The beauty of OASIS is that as an industry consensus standard its members range from large global brands such as Estee Lauder Companies and L'Oreal to third party and private label manufactures to smaller, specialist brands such as Perfect Organics and Juice Beauty," said, Gay Timmons, chairperson of OASIS and founder of Oh, Oh Organics.

"Along with many of the founding members of Oasis I have been working for the past 10 years to certify organic products in this fragmented market," commented Tim Kapsner, founding member of OASIS and senior research scientist for Aveda. "Until today, the U.S. has not had a dedicated organic standard for the beauty and personal care industry. In absence of a true industry standard, companies applied the USDA Organic food standard for beauty and personal care ingredients and products. But the USDA's food standards were never designed for this industry, and its strict guidelines limit even certain types of 'green chemistry' and pose significant challenges for those seeking to create certified organic products."

Specifically created for the beauty and personal care industry, ECOCERT is the current prevailing European standard and certification is predicated on a minimum of 10% certified organic content. At launch time, OASIS will require 85% certified organic content--which will likely increase as "green chemistry" continues to evolve.

OASIS has benefited from its experience with ECOCERT and USDA-NOP and aims to improve standards to the benefit of the manufacturer, the consumer, and, most importantly, to the planet Earth. "Global standardization of the organic beauty and personal care industry is also an end goal of OASIS. The organization will take an active roll in the development of an industry standard at the international level," said Ms. Timmons.

Retailers are also getting in on the game. In March, Whole Foods Market unveiled its Premium Body Care Standard to separate its products from inferior naturals. According to Organic Monitor, Boots, the leading health and beauty retailer in the U.K., has also developed its own standard for its Botanics Organics launched last year.

"Private standards are being introduced to differentiate pure natural organic cosmetics from competing products that contain low levels of natural ingredients and high levels of synthetic chemicals. The industry, realizing that standards and logos are important to build consumer trust, however, appears to be dividing in terms of developing these very standards," Organic Monitor said. "The number of standards is proliferating, however it will ultimately be consumers that decide what standards and logos will succeed."

On the "natural" side of things, the Natural Products Association, Washington, D.C., announced in early May that it has developed a program that defines "natural" as it relates to personal care products. This new certification program defines natural and includes an easily-identified seal. The organization said shoppers can expect the seal to begin appearing on certified personal care products in the coming months.

"People want natural products because they are good for them and good for our environment," said Debra Short, president of the Natural Products Association. "But anyone could claim their product was 'natural,' even if it was 100% synthetic or petroleum-based. That wasn't fair to consumers or to companies who make truly natural products, and this seal will help end all that confusion."

Under the new program, products must follow strict guidelines set out by the Natural Products Association to merit bearing the seal. The criteria include, but are not limited to:

* Product must be made up of at least 95% truly natural ingredients or ingredients that are derived from natural sources;

* No ingredients with any potential suspected human health risks;

* No processes that significantly or adversely alter the purity/effect of the natural ingredients;

* Ingredients that come from a purposeful, renewable/plentiful source found in nature (flora, fauna, mineral);

* Processes that are minimal and don't use synthetic/harsh chemicals or otherwise dilute purity; and

* Non-natural ingredients only when viable natural alternative ingredients are unavailable and only when there are absolutely no suspected potential human health risks.

The Natural Products Association standard is science-based and was developed by a team of experts from the association and natural products manufacturers. The advisory panel drew from a variety of sources, including relevant international standards, third-party organizations, existing research, and years of experience in the field. Advisors to the association include leading natural personal care suppliers and manufacturers, including Aubrey Organics, Burt's Bees, Badger Balm, California Baby, Farmaesthetics, Trilogy Fragrances and Weleda.