Global Search
Whole Story
The Official Whole Foods Market® Blog
Truly Organic Body Care
| Meet the Blogger | More Posts by Chris Jensen With our guidelines for organic personal care, Whole Foods Market is working toward ensuring that “organic” means organic in every aisle of our stores. Listen in as we share about our efforts to protect the organic standard for our shoppers, suppliers and planet. Joe Dickson is Global Quality Standards Coordinator at Whole Foods Market.
- When you’re in the produce aisle, “organic” means that a fruit or vegetable was grown without toxic or persistent agricultural chemicals in environmentally friendly ways, and that it was certified by a third party.
- Whole Foods Market believes that this should be the definition in our Whole Body departments as well, which is why we’re raising the bar.
- Our guidelines require any product making an organic claim – including products with ‘organic’ in the brand name – to be made up mostly of organic agricultural ingredients and to be certified.
- With food, in order to call a product “organic,” it has to contain at least 95% certified organic ingredients (and the remaining 5% is tightly controlled too) thanks to strict government regulations.
- Since there’s no government oversight of organic body care, consumers have no assurance that “organic” products contain ANY organic ingredients at all.
- Any product making an “organic” product claim – like “organic shampoo” or “organic bath salts” must be 95% organic and certified to the same USDA Organic standard as food.
- Products with more than 70% organic ingredients can make a claim like “Made with organic essential oils and extracts” if they’re USDA certified, or “Contains organic essential oils and extracts,” if they’re certified to the NSF 305 Organic Personal Care products standard.
- The NSF standard is similar to the “70%/Made With” level of the USDA standard, but allows certain ingredients and processes that are specific to personal care products.
- As of June 1st, all organic personal care products sold in our U.S. stores will be certified organic.
- Looking at the front label, anything that uses the word “organic” must be certified to one of the standards mentioned above.
- Anything with “organic” in the product or name must be certified by a USDA accredited certifier or to the NSF standard – look for the certifier’s name on the label.
- We’ve already seen many suppliers obtain certification and increase the organic ingredients in their products in order to comply, and this is a huge win for organic farmers, the environment, and shoppers seeking more organic products.
38 Comments
Comments
Great pod cast, I had no idea about this. It's good that they're going to be held accountable.
04/22/2011 6:36:55 AM CDT
Thanks for the clarification. I always have no idea what all the labels mean! There are so many. I mean natural versus organic, you'd think they were the same thing! They definitely need to uphold strict standards on what can be labeled organic.
04/27/2011 10:01:10 PM CDT
thanks for clarifying this stuff! appreciate the transparency and that stores will be held accountable.
05/01/2011 5:09:08 PM CDT
Thanks for stepping it up and trying to get everyone to uphold a better standard. June 1st will be a great day.
05/02/2011 10:50:42 AM CDT
Certifying that a skin care product is organic in no way ensures quality of the product. It only ensures that the ingredients that are claiming to be organic are indeed organic. As a dermatologist, I can assure you that the best products are the simplest formulations. Many 'organic' skin care products that have a long list of extracts in them might be truly organic but carry a large risk of both irritation and allergic reaction. Just because something is good and healthy to eat does not make it something you want or should put on your skin.
05/07/2011 5:58:30 PM CDT
Thank you Whole Foods! Several companies, like Dr. Bronner's, have been fighting this for a while. I shop only at Whole Foods and appreciate your commitment to the health of your customers.
05/11/2011 2:24:41 PM CDT
I am so glad that Whole Foods has adopted this policy! Kudos to Whole Foods for upholding the law when it comes to organic labeling practices. I just hope that people realize that this changes the way that the products on the shelves are labeled, and not necessarily the ingredients in the products. This change makes ensures that any product labeled "organic" is truly organic. But do note, that there will still be plenty of non-organic/synthetic-filled products on shelves, they'll just be labeled "natural" instead.
05/11/2011 11:16:33 PM CDT
I am so glad Whole Foods have taken their own initiative to enforce their own standards for health and beauty care. Something the government and FDA have yet to do. I have stopped using most of my toxic products, and keep trying to find safer alternatives. I check the skin deep website all the time to see which products have the lowest toxicity (level 0-2). You may even say I've become obsessed. I am guessing what's safe when I buy products from other health food stores, and then I get home and find out they are some of the worst offending products with moderate to high toxicity. Ugh! I am glad to learn I can have peace of mind buying from Whole Foods. I am glad that you have a list of 400 undesirable ingredients, and that organic means 95% organic and USDA certified. I cannot wait to take a trip to my nearest store. I read that last year Europe cited 11,000 ingredients unsuitable for skincare and the U.S. found only 11. How scarey, and shocking! The FDA and U.S. government sure could learn a lot from you. Can't wait until June 1st, and can't wait until they pass a safe cosmetics bill.
04/10/2012 10:57:56 AM CDT
This is really great news for people that use organic products . im sure people will appreciate your products and use them well for body care .
08/15/2012 11:51:00 AM CDT
do you have maracuja oil for face as a moisturizer
09/10/2012 2:26:15 PM CDT
@HINA - All of our products vary between regions and store locations. Reach out to your local store to see if they offer this product. You can find their contact information at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/list.
09/11/2012 4:34:15 PM CDT
I want to know that if these brands are in your store such as Avalon,Aubrey ,Desert Essence, Giovanni, Nature's Gate,Nourish, Ecover, Seventh Generation etc. Thanks!
03/08/2013 8:07:23 PM CST
@JIANYA - Most of our stores should carry these brands but since our vendors can vary between regions, I would suggest reaching out to your local store to see if they have these in stock. You can find a list of stores on our website at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/list.
03/10/2013 3:00:43 PM CDT