Cosmetic Companies' Natural And Organic Claims Can Be Misleading To Consumers
Over the past few years, the demand for organic products and eco-friendly services has been rapidly growing. As a result consumers are now embracing more and more organic made products—including beauty and skin care essentials.
With the increased popularity of these types of products, it is inevitable that retailers and manufacturers may capitalize on the trend—by jumping on the organic bandwagon. These “me too” actions are not necessarily a bad thing if the products or services are genuinely organic/eco-friendly products. However, many companies have capitalized on the “green” movement by offering products and services which are not necessarily 100% organic or environmentally friendly.
The term "green washing" has been coined to describe these actions – by companies who portray a green-friendly façade but who don’t necessarily have environmentally sound practices or who simply over-state the degree to which their products are organic. As a result, consumers are becoming jaded and expressing a growing concern over their ability to differentiate products which are 100% organic versus those that simply lay claim to being organic.
Some of the most obvious cases of “Green Washing” are in the multi-million dollar organic beauty and skin care industry. Currently, any skin care company can claim a high percentage of organic or natural content, but in order to verify that claim an outside party would need to determine the source of ingredients to ensure that they are really organic, and then furthermore, determine how they are being processed in the laboratory. This is called third-party organic certification.
In an attempt to re-establish consumer trust companies that are truly committed to the organic movement are choosing to have their products certified by an objective third party. Agencies that provide this service, such as the USDA or the even stricter Nature et Progrès, help differentiate companies who produce genuine organic products from the many “organic-ish” product manufacturers by diligently monitoring the products that they certify and providing them with a logo for their labels.
Third-party certified organic products must pass stringent quality-testing and standards to ensure that no synthetic chemicals are used at any stage of the production chain. No chemically processed ingredients are permitted to be used in the products, and all certified products must pass environmental standard and random quality inspections to ensure that they continue to meet the guidelines set by the certifier.
The only way to guarantee that what a cosmetic company is claiming on the label or in their marketing is actually true, is if that company is third-party certified organic by a reputable certifier such as Nature et Progrès or the USDA.
Many consumers are surprised to discover that the cosmetic industry is essentially unregulated in North America. In Canada, when a new skin care product is brought to the market, manufacturers are not required to send that product to Health Canada for testing. The only thing that Health Canada requires is a written list of ingredients. In the US the situation is even worse, as the FDA does even not require notification of a new cosmetic product on the market, much less an ingredient list or the product itself for testing.
This comes as a shock to many consumers, as there is a widely held belief that in Canada and the US the governments are testing new products, not only to ensure that they are safe, but also to confirm that what is stated in the list of ingredients matches what is actually in the bottle.
Related Links
http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/index.cfm
http://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/
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