OTA Task Force Rejects Counting Ordinary Water as Organic in Body Care Products

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http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/nop/release392004.PDF

 

 

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or Immediate Release:

 

March 9, 2004

 

CONTACT: Craig Minowa 320-384-7764

 

Craig

 

Adam Eidinger 202-744-2671

 

Adam

 

Organic Trade Association Task Force Rejects Counting

 

Ordinary Water as Organic in Body Care Products

 

OCA’s Coming Clean Campaign Changed Industry Attitudes

 

ANAHEIM, CA – One year after the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) launched

the Coming Clean

 

Campaign to establish strong labeling standards for “organic” cosmetics, the

Organic Trade Association’s

 

Personal Care Task Force (PCTF) rejected a scheme of counting ordinary water as

“organic” in body care

 

products. In a 13 to 2 vote on Saturday at the Natural Products Expo West in

Anaheim, California, the task

 

force of natural body care companies condemned the practice of counting as

“organic” water added during

 

the steaming of botanicals to make hydrosol water extracts. The task force

subsequently voted 10 to 5 to

 

not count any amount of hydrosol water extracts as organic until the minority

percentage of water from

 

plant material versus added from steam can be determined.

 

“The rejection of the organic water scheme by natural body care companies is a

result of vocal consumer

 

demands for meaningful organic standards on cosmetics products,” says Ronnie

Cummins, OCA’s

 

Executive Director. “By addressing the hydrosol water extract fraud, the OTA and

leading natural body

 

care companies are heading in the right direction as they continue to hammer out

recommendations to the

 

USDA for organic label standards on personal care products,” Cummins said.

 

The immediate cause for this definitive statement from the OTA’s PCTF was the

recent Rutgers University

 

study sponsored by the OCA which rigorously demonstrated that even with very

conservative assumptions,

 

a high-quality hydrosol water extract is composed mostly of water from steam.

OCA’s Complaint to the

 

USDA’s National Organic Program exposing regulatory violations as well as

general consumer pressure

 

were also key. Representatives of companies that count ordinary water in

hydrosol water extracts as

 

“organic” attended the PCTF meeting as well as companies that joined the OCA’s

Complaint to the USDA.

 

USDA must respond to the OCA Complaint filed against Bayliss Ranch’s hydrosol

water extracts by May

 

19 of this year. The organic water scheme enables Bayliss Ranch’s

customers--manufacturers of body care

 

and food products for consumers--to make fraudulent claims that their products

are “70% organic,” by

 

counting the ordinary water in the Bayliss extracts as the primary “organic”

content of the products. This

 

makes a mockery of the fundamental purpose of the NOP, which assures consumers

that products claiming

 

organic status are truly at least 70% organic WITHOUT counting water as

“organic.” After receiving

 

QAI’s certification under the National Organic Program for food in the summer of

2003, Bayliss Ranch

 

commenced marketing its hydrosol water extracts for use in beverages, sauces,

soups and other water-based

 

food products as well as body care products “as the perfect base ingredient in

products allowing a certified

 

organic labeling claim.” (See OCA’s Complaint at

www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/links2.cfm)

 

Currently, an increasing number of brands, such as Avalon Natural Products,

JASON, and Nature’s

 

Gate, are misleading consumers into thinking 70% of the ingredients in their

products are “organic” (Note:

 

70% organic content enables a product to make a front panel organic label claim

under the National

 

Organic Program.) All these companies are supplied organic hydrosol water

extracts by a single supplier,

 

Bayliss Ranch, certified by QAI, the largest organic certifier in the world.

Similar to an infusion or tea,

 

which is made by boiling plant material in water, hydrosol water extracts are

made by steaming plants, and

 

then cooling the steam back to water. Products made with infusions or teas

cannot count the water in such

 

teas or infusions as organic in calculating organic content under NOP food

standards. However, it has

 

become distressingly common practice to use “Steam Tea” as the main “organic”

ingredient in many

 

products by misleadingly counting the ordinary water in such “Steam Teas” as

organic.

 

The OCA is a grassroots nonprofit organization concerned with food safety,

organic farming, sustainable agriculture, fair trade and genetic engineering.

 

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ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION · 6101 CLIFF ESTATE ROAD · LITTLE MARAIS, MN 55614

USA

 

Telephone: 218-226-4164 · Fax: 218-353-7652· email: info;

www.organicconsumers.org

 

 

 

 

karl theis jr

 

 

http://groups.msn.com/exposureofthetruth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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