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At this time there are no standards created
specifically for the personal care product industry.
Organic certification of personal care products is based on the
organic
food standards set by the National Organic Program of the
USDA.
The National Organic Program (NOP)
was created in 1990 after congress passed the Organic Foods
Production Act (OFPA) to ensure that agricultural products marketed
as “Organic” would meet consistent and uniform standards.
A product that is
certified organic is made from ingredients grown and processed
without chemical fertilizers, growth hormones, GMOs, or synthetic
pesticides. The product must undergo yearly inspections and meet
certain criteria for production, handling, processing, and labeling
in order to receive USDA organic certification.
In 2002 the USDA announced that the scope of the National Organic
Program would extend beyond food to other items including personal
care products. Unfortunately, we have noticed that use of the word
"organic" on the labels of personal care products is not held up to
the same rigorous standards as organic labels on food.
Unfortunately the term
"Organic" in personal care products is often used as a marketing
hype to entice consumers looking for more natural products for
their family. Too often you see a company name like "Ida's
Organics," plastered on the front label, but sadly the ingredients
are often not even natural. This is type of labeling is misleading.
The word “organic” should not be used unless the product ingredients
as well as the manufacturing process are certified as organic by a
USDA recognized certifying agency. Chagrin Valley Soap uses
OEFFA (Ohio Ecological Food and Farm
Association) to certify our organic ingredients and
manufacturing processes in accordance with the USDA’s guidelines.
The "certified organic" labeling system for food and other
products has three levels or tiers of certification...
(See USDA
Organic Labeling Information
sheet)
-
100% Organic
Products can be labeled
“100 percent organic”
if they contain 100% organically grown and produced
ingredients (excluding water and salt).
These products can
display the USDA organic logo
and/or the logo of the specific certifying agent.
-
Organic
Products can be labeled as
"organic"
if
95% of the ingredients are organic
(excluding water and salt). The remaining 5%
must consist of
non-agricultural substances that are on the
USDA
approved ingredient List.
These products can display the USDA organic logo
and/or the logo of the specific certifying agent.
-
Made
With Organic Ingredients
Products can be labeled
"made with organic ingredients"
if at least 70% organic ingredients are used
(excluding water and salt). The
remaining 30% of the non-organic ingredients may even be
synthetic, but must be approved on the
National List.
These products may display the
certifying agent's logo but not the USDA organic logo.
We make our “organic" soap and shampoo as organic as possible
Since it is
impossible to make real soap without lye (learn
more) and organic lye does not
exist, there is no such thing as a “100% organic” soap or even
“organic” soap based on the three tier system of the USDA National
Organic Program mentioned above.
ALL of the other ingredients (base oils, botanicals, natural
additives, essential oils, etc.) in our “Organic as
Possible” soaps and shampoos are certified organic.
Under
the National Organic Program (NOP), water cannot be certified as
“organic” or called an “organic” ingredient and cannot be included
when calculating the percentage of organic ingredients in a product.
Since we
superfat our soaps at a pretty high
rate (which means less lye), and use organic coconut milk in
place of much of the water, our organic soap is about 90% organic.
Due to the chemistry of soapmaking (learn
more), it is impossible for any soapmaker to have a much
higher percentage than that based on the USDA standards as they now
exist.
Soapmaking adds another dimension to the labeling issue in that it
is the result of a chemical reaction. Personal care
products such as creams, lotions, etc are simply a mixture of
ingredients. By definition, a mixture is
composed of two or more
substances and each substance keeps its original properties in the
final product. As a result of the chemical reaction of
soapmaking (saponification), there is no lye left in the finished
product.
If we
were allowed to exclude the lye in calculating the percentage of
organic ingredients in our finished bars, our "organic as possible"
soaps could be 100% organic.
- In the US, organic soap
is always on the "Made with Organic Ingredients" tier for
labeling. This means that
soap may display the organic certifying agent's logo but not the
USDA organic logo.
- It is interesting
to note that in Europe the lye is NOT counted as an ingredient and
as a result soap can be Certified Organic or 100% Organic.
Truth in labeling is important to us at Chagrin Valley Soap.
Educated, informed consumers make the best choices. Hopefully as
consumer awareness grows and the natural and organic personal care
products industry also grows, the federal government will adopt
labeling standards for personal care products which will include the
special circumstances of real handmade soap! |
