Consumer interest in organic products is on the rise, which has resulted in the need to establish clear standards for various product categories beyond those included in the scope of the original National Organic Program (NOP). NSF International recently published a new American National Standard, NSF/ANSI 305: Made with Organic Personal Care Products, which defines labeling and marketing requirements for personal care products that are made with organic ingredients.
NSF/ANSI 305 is an important step for manufacturers and retailers that produce and sell organic non-food products, as well as for consumers who choose to purchase certified made with organic products. Products covered by NSF/ANSI 305 include, but are not limited to: cosmetic products, rinse-off and leave-on personal care products, oral care products and personal hygiene products.
NSF/ANSI 305 is the only American National Standard that allows labeling and marketing requirements for “made with organic” personal care products. Even though there are other standards that enable organizations to become certified to their private standard, NSF/ANSI 305 is the first consensus standard for “made with organic” personal care products in which all materially affected stakeholders—academia, regulatory, industry and consumers—have discussed their expectations.
Now that the standard has been adopted as an American National Standard, products that comply with the standard can become certified, demonstrating through independent validation that they meet the stringent requirements. This should provide a competitive advantage to those certified products, compared to products that are labeled as having organic content without independent validation of that claim against a recognized standard.
Developing a Higher Standard
The American National Standard was developed in accordance with the requirements set forth by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. All ANSI standards are developed based on the principles of due-process, participation and consensus. NSF/ANSI 305 was developed through involvement of those who are directly and materially affected by the scope of the standard. This means anyone in the public can provide input on the standard. This process ensures balanced input from industry representatives, public health/regulatory officials, and users/consumer representatives. Organic personal care manufacturers, trade associations, regulators, organic program administrators, organic product retailers and other stakeholders from the organic products community participated in the development of the new “made with organic” personal care standard.
If, down the road, USDA or NOP decide to engage organic personal care products, the U.S. 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.