Organic Soap Claims Lathering a Controversy?

In August2005, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) extended its policystatement to include organic claims on personal healthcare products that havemet the organic standards of formulation and manufacturing laid down by theNational Organics Program (NOP), a division of the USDA. While this came asgreat news to personal healthcare manufacturers, it also created a great dealof confusion and controversy.

The Foodand Drugs Administration does not define or regulate the term organic as itapplies to cosmetics, body care, or personal care products. As a result, bothmanufacturers and consumers are confused as to what qualifies the organiclabel on personal healthcare products.There are private interpretations for the organic label on personalhealthcare products and as a result, third party organic certifications can beobtained. But without any qualifying standards, an organic claim on apersonal healthcare product may mean little or nothing.

Getting Organic on Soap

In April2008, the NOP released a news bulletin clarifying the USDA standards fororganic certification of cosmetics, body care products and personal careproducts. The USDA is responsible for all organic claims on food products,but is currently not enforcing the same standards on personal healthcareproducts labeled organic as it does on organic foods and dietary supplements.

The issuewith soap is one of the major controversies. Some view that the Organic Foods ProductionAct (OFPA) does not allow soapmanufacturers to put any organic claims either organic or made withorganic ingredients on soap products. They believe that any soap product thatclaims to be organic is violating the OFPA. The NOP differs with thisviewpoint and has drafted a document that supports the interpretation of theOFPA to allow organic certification and labeling of soap products formulatedand manufactured in conformity to the regulations laid down by the NOP.

In July2009 the NOP addressed the soap issue and a guideline has been drafted to beused by certifying agents accredited by the USDA, to certify and label soapproducts (made in accordance with NOP regulations) as organic or made withorganic ingredients. NOP regulations describe aconsistent, uniform policy for the formulation and manufacturing of a finishedproduct, without specifying the finished product. This allows a wide variety ofproducts to be labeled organic or made with organic ingredients regardless ofthe end use of the product. Therefore,based on true organic component content, a soap product may be eligible, underUSDA, for made with organic ingredients certification if, for example, aproduct is made from 75 percent organic ingredients and 25 percent allowedsynthetic ingredients.

The Need for a Complete Policy onPersonal Healthcare Products

Many in theindustry argue that federal standards for organic certification should beweaker than those set for foods. Others believe that regardless of whether aproduct is to be ingested or topically applied, both have the potential tocause equally hazardous side effects, and therefore an organics certificationstandard that can be applied across the board for both food and personalhealthcare products should be in effect.

One of themajor tasks the NOP has on hand is to set guidelines and develop clear policiesfor organic claims of personal healthcare products and propose these to the Foodand Drugs Administration. The need is to develop a complete federal governmentpolicy for personal healthcare products. Many manufacturers are of the opinionthat the clear regulations the NOP has outlined for organic foods andnutritional supplements should be adopted for personal healthcare products aswell.

Should soap that is formulated withcertified organic oils and materials be labeled as organic or made withorganic ingredients?

Many soapmanufacturers concur with the NOPs interpretation of the OFPA and seethe need for a more regulatory policy on organic certification for personalhealthcare products. The implementation of these policies will, in the longrun, boost the high quality standards of the term organic or made withorganic ingredients label claims for personal healthcare products. Consumerswill be able to recognize organic components in the product as well assynthetic ingredients in all products whether they are to be ingested ortopically applied. Industry experts predict that these changes, when formalizedby the Food and Drugs Administration, will boost the credibility of thepersonal healthcare industry and result in greater consumer trust and highergrowth prospects.