Opening Lines: Small Moves, Small Effect?
Can independent programs alone raise natural product labeling standards?
By Jennifer Kwok, EditorNatural product package labeling made February headlines thanks to two high-profile companies. In February, Burt’s Bees unleashed a print ad campaign that asked, “Have you read your body lotion label lately?” According to Burt’s Bees, many products that are labeled as natural in fact contain synthetic ingredients and only small amounts of natural ingredients. Also in February, Whole Foods Market announced its own Premium Body Care seal of approval. Whole Foods will use this seal to label products that it believes contain only the most natural of ingredients. As a consumer, I admire these brands for trying to raise consumer awareness and create more-stringent labeling standards. However, these are only small steps towards establishing effective standards.
Several challenges lie ahead. First, of course, is the hurdle to determine which ingredients to call natural.
The other challenge is setting up a nationwide set of standards. The organic products industry uses the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s USDA Organic seal to distinguish certified-organic products. Such a seal does not exist for natural products.
There are many benefits in a national program. One is enforceability. In the organics industry, brands must pay a fine if they falsely label their products as certified organic. No such program exists for natural products.
Whole Foods’ seal of approval is not national or enforceable—nor is it meant to be. The most it might do is to keep products without the seal away from Whole Foods shelves—or influence customers’ purchasing decisions.
Without unified national standards, the natural products industry risks many retailers creating their own “official” seals of approval. If that happens, whose standards will be deemed the authority?
Burt’s Bees recognizes the need for a single set of standards. The brand has created Burt’s Bill, a petition that calls for a united labeling standard for all natural personal care products. As a step in that direction, the brand is working with the independent Natural Products Association and other natural beauty brands to develop a book of standards as well as a seal. Still not nationwide, but getting closer.
If companies like Burt’s Bees and Whole Foods combined their initiatives into one common guide for the industry, it would be a step in the right direction. Setting one universal bar would be powerful. These initiatives by Burt’s Bees and Whole Foods might provide just the type of inspiration that is needed to spur the industry into doing just that.