Exclusive Interview with NPA and Burt’s Bee’s About
NPA’s New Certification Program
In May, the Natural Products Association (NPA) implemented its own certification program for natural personal care products, complete with a seal for packaging. This move was a reaction to concerns that some companies may be misusing the term natural to label products with synthetic ingredients.
NPA worked with some of the leading brands in the natural personal care market to set up the program’s standards. Dan Fabricant of the NPA and Mike Indursky from Burt’s Bee’s were key players in setting up the program. In this exclusive interview from June 3, 2008, they explain to CPC Packaging some of the thoughts behind the program.
How did this program come about?
Mike Indursky: “Just as the NPA saw that there needed to be standards set in natural personal care, so did we. We had done a study with market research firm Yankelovich back in 2007 that made us realize that we needed to do something. Based on the study results, women thought that there was a standard for natural personal care products and that someone else was overseeing and caring for their well-being. And that’s not the case. So we started working on this standard, and low and behold, the NPA already had this in the works, so we started working together—because you can’t do it by yourself. We also reached out to a lot of other top competitors in the category so that we could do this thing collectively and really serve the greater good and help our customers.”
Dan Fabricant: “We reached out to other firms that were like-minded and really worked together to develop this standard and to try to eliminate the confusion out there that Mike spoke about regarding the Yankelovich study. The consumer wants there to be real meaning to natural in the marketplace, especially when it comes to personal care products.”
How long did it take to define the program’s standards for natural?
Fabricant: “We started last May. It took a little over a year. Mike chaired the steering group and really quarterbacked a lot of the initiatives because Burt’s Bee’s had done quite a bit of work on its own already. We really figured out a way in which we could all synergize the process and make it work. We got it done by looking at some of the other standards that exist in the industry as well.”
How did you determine which ingredients to put on the natural list?
Fabricant: “Number one, it had to be something that was nonsynthetic. Nonsynthetic, nonpetroleum—those aren’t going to be allowed. Does an ingredient have a potential health risk? This isn’t a toxicological standard, but if there’s an ingredient that there may be an issue with, I don’t think consumers would want to put it on their skin. We also looked at which ingredients would be sustainable.”
Indursky: “Overall, we looked at what would make sense. First, anything that says it’s natural should be natural. That includes natural ingredients and natural processes. And the second thing is that it should be safe. Any product labeled as natural should not have any ingredients with any suspected human health risks, no matter how minimal the risk is. Third, that it should be responsible. No natural product should ever use any type of animal testing. We fundamentally believe that animals weren’t put on the planet to be tested on. And fourth, any product labeled as natural should be sustainable. It has to use the most environmentally sensitive packaging. Packaging at the end of the day is just a conveyance; it just carries the product over to the consumer. Ornate, unnecessary, wasteful unsustainable packaging is just inappropriate for natural personal care. So those were the four guiding principles. And then by looking at the body of work that was done by all of the regulatory certifying groups around the world, we put together our standards. We believe that our standards are high enough to have real meaning. But they are not so absolute that only one or two brands will meet them. The idea is that there are brands that are really trying to meet these standards, and we’re trying to encourage them to raise their standards.”
Fabricant: “We really want to encourage more companies to use natural ingredients and to cause a shift in the supply chain so that there are more natural ingredients available. This is going to help the consumer out. The more available natural ingredients are, the more cost-effective they will be.”
Why do you charge a fee to participate in your program?
Fabricant: “We have to manage program costs. This program is going to utilize our resources. We have third-party auditors, and we have to pay them for their time. And it’s really a nominal fee. We don’t think that it will be prohibitive, even for smaller companies. So I think that for the folks that really want to the consumer to draw a distinction with their products in the marketplace, it’s very reasonable.”
Whole Foods recently came up with its own natural product standard. Do you think that together, you’re on the road to laying the tracks for a federal program?
Fabricant: “Whole Foods is a member of ours, and we’re very excited about what they’re doing. They share a similar goal with us. The NPA has 9000 retailers as members, so our program is a lot larger in scale in terms of the impact it will have. But in terms of the regulatory aspect and in terms of the federal government getting involved, obviously FDA has a lot going on right now, especially in the way of food safety. Regulating natural personal care products hasn’t really been a priority of theirs in the past. So we really felt that it was important as an industry to address consumers’ needs at this time.”
Do you think that these individual certification programs like yours and Whole Foods’ will compete against each other or confuse the consumer?
Fabricant: “I don’t think so. The NPA’s program is really the only national standard and certification program for naturals. So in terms of confusing the consumer, I think that it’s going to do the exact opposite. I think we share the same goal as Whole Foods, and they’re a great member of ours. At the same time, there are 9000 independent retailers out there that also sell natural personal care products, as well as however many in the mass market.”
Indursky: “The way that I look at this is that what Whole Foods is doing for its stores is wonderful. It will serve their 200 or so stores. But we had to look beyond 200 stores. There are more than 60,000 food, drug, specialty, and department stores. We think that we have a standard that serves all consumers over all categories. We weren’t skewed by a store. Our whole goal with this is to harmonize globally. That’s why all of our meetings are open forums. By being open and allowing for really rich debate, we’ll get to the best place possible.”
This program is still in its infancy. Where would you like to see it go? Would you like it to become the authoritative natural product seal?
Fabricant: “Definitely. I think that’s the whole point. That’s what benefits the consumer. The consumer then has an easy way in the marketplace to determine what is truly a natural product.”
Is there a way to enforce use of the seal?
Fabricant: “Well, to prevent misuse, we have terms of use that are clear under the certification process that will definitely be enforced. We can’t force anyone to use the seal, and we can’t force folks that don’t use the seal not to use the term natural in terms of the law, but at the same time, the more interested that consumers are in the seal, and the more that you see the seal out there on products, that will definitely shake up the marketplace.”
Are any companies certified yet?
Fabricant: “We don’t have anyone certified yet; we’re just finalizing the program. It shouldn’t be too much longer before you start seeing the seal on products.”
Indursky: “The other thing that I would add is that this program is also going to help retailers. So many of the major retailers are coming to Burt’s Bee’s as a leading natural personal care player to say that they’re putting a natural section together in their stores and asking which brands they should choose to display. You need to give them some kind of objective standard to adhere to. You can’t just say, ‘Well, pick these brands.’ They want a third party to be involved, and that’s why this is so important. It helps vendors, and it helps suppliers. In terms of suppliers, the broadening of this market will allow them to commercialize processes and ingredients, when before, it wasn’t really economically feasible to do so. Hopefully this will allow more research and development of natural ingredients.”
Fabricant: “We really feel that self-certification works best in this area. Firms like Mike’s have been doing this for quite a long time and are really on the cutting edge of these natural ingredients, so I think that it’s important that that voice is always out there, standing in front of any regulatory issues, especially when you’re dealing with the technical aspects of formulating products.”
Do you see this program staying independent, without government involvement?
Fabricant: “If at any point the government wishes to move towards regulating natural personal care products, I think that we can demonstrate that we’ve got a standard in place and a certification process that works.”
Also See: Association Creates Certification Program for Natural Personal Care Products