Something we get asked about constantly is organic certification – what it means? who really has it? how can you tell? what do the different levels of certification mean? And in an industry awash with “greenwashing” how do I know what is really green and organic??

There is a lot of confusion out there and one of the main reasons for this is the lack of industry standards and regulations that apply consistently to everyone. For example in Australia we have SEVEN organic certifying bodies, including our certifier OFC ( Organic Food Chain) - SEVEN!!!!! I mean come on how hard is that to regulate ! let alone all the other countries different regulations and standards.

AQIS ( Australian Quarantine and Inspection services) govern all the certifying bodies to keep them all in line with overall regulations governing food, agriculture, importation and exportation. But we have never had an Australian standard for certified organic for either food or cosmetics/skincare. If you want to know more about certified organic standards and how to spot a real organic product then please sign up for our free report.

So now things are changing and an Australian Draft standard has been drawn up over the last year, co-authored by many of the larger players in the industry. Many companies such as ours, who were already doing everything Organically, were asked to contribute to the draft to ensure that a standard was accessible across the board and truly defined the terms that go with acheiving certified organic status. The Standard is expected to be published towards the end of the year and will effectively be policed by the ACCC , in as much as consumers will be able to report companies that seem to be greenwashing or using the term “organic” without reason.

Many companies have been caught out in the past year greenwashing their products and this has caused quite a stir in the industry check out these articleshttp://www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com/Products-Markets/Australian-authorities-take-action-over-organic-mislabelling and http://www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com/Products-Markets/Cosmetics-awash-with-greenwashing-says-report

Which brings us to what is happening overseas with all the press caused by Dr Bronner ( a certified organic soap company with very high ethics) suing a number of companies using the term organic either in marketing or branding without following through on this claim in their products. The whole point being that Dr Bronner felt that a company that has put the hard yards into going organic should be able to use that claim without the fear that someone else is using it fraudulently. Read more here http://www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com/Products-Markets/Cosmetics-awash-with-greenwashing-says-report

This led to a huge shake up which many claimed had been long overdue to the US Organic industry in which the NSF created a National Standard which was adopted late last year in conjunction with NOP ( the US National Organic program) which covered standards for those products that are claiming to be “made with certified organic ingredients” where there must be a minimum of 70% overall certified organic ingredients which has certainly paved the way for more industry regulation. The USDA in the US is still the main certifying body for products claiming 95-100% certified organic ingredients and is becoming a widely recognised logo globally for this.

Watch this space for more education and information on organics and organic skincare. Please feel free to email us with your questions and comments.