Whole Food Market, the non-stop growing organic grocery store chain is putting the hammer down on bath & body products claiming to be organic. You may not know this, but soaps, shampoos, and other body products aren’t regulated by the USDA in the same way organic food products are. In fact, there aren’t really any regulations for labeling organic personal care products…until now. If you are selling a personal care product in Whole Foods, you will soon face some major labeling changes, which could ultimately mean you have to change your entire product. Joe Dickson, a quality standards coordinator at Whole Foods states, “Just like the national organic standards for food were an attempt to protect our customers, this is an extension of that same thinking to this aisle.”
Not all producers are happy about this change. As it turns out, not all the ingredients in some of these products can be produced organically. For example, one producer noted that glycerin cannot be organic because no one makes it organically. Another worried that one of their key ingredients, mineral salt, which makes their product effective, is not considered organic, so they will have to alter their entire formula and hope the product still works. Another concern is being able to make organic products with long lifespans since most don’t use soaps or shampoos immediately and expect a decent shelf life.
From Whole Foods’ standpoint, they have a mission and a vision for their company, and they are now large enough to truly enforce their desires. If you are an organic personal care product producer, Whole Foods would be a dream retailer, so they certainly have the power to hand down these types of regulations. From a labeling perspective, if the rules are followed, the labels will be just as easy to produce as any current bath and body label. If you plan to produce and market a product at Whole Foods, be sure to check their regulations before printing your labels. Whole Foods is requiring everyone to fully comply with these new regulations by June 2011.
Tags: bath labels, cosmetic labels, custom labels, food labels, shampoo labels, soap labels
