MELVILLE, N.Y.—Since USDA has not created specific organic standards for formulating and labeling personal care products that contain organic ingredients in contrast to organic foods and beverages, two years ago Hain Celestial, a natural and organic products company providing consumers with A Healthy Way of Life™, began a program of reformulation and relabeling to adhere to NSF/ANSI 305 standard, the American National Standard for personal care products containing organic ingredients.
The NSF/ANSI 305 Standard for Personal Care Products Containing Organic Ingredients specifies the materials, processes, production criteria and conditions that must be met in order to make organic label and marketing claims. Under this standard, all personal care products with "organic" claims (other than ingredient list) must contain a minimum organic content of 70 percent and be formulated without any ingredient or process disallowed by the NSF.
"We continually review our personal care product formulations and standards," said Irwin D. Simon, president and CEO of Hain Celestial. "To meet the expectations of our loyal consumers, we have adopted the NSF/ANSI 305 'made with organic' standard across our Avalon Organics® and Earth's Best Organic® personal care brands. We are currently in the process of certification and labeling transition. These changes affect all production as of November 2011."
So the Company's natural brands may also become compliant to the standard, the JASON®, Zia® natural skincare and Alba Botanica® brands have all updated their packaging to identify as organic only specific ingredients on products' ingredient lists. These changes have affected all production as of June 2011.
"Hain Celestial maintains the highest standards for safety and quality," said Emma Froelich-Shea, vice president of marketing, personal care. All of the certified organic ingredients in the Company's products meet all federal requirements pursuant to the USDA's National Organic Program. They are certified organic by organizations including Quality Assurance International (QAI), Oregon Tilth, EcoCert and many other respected third-party organic certification agencies.
