• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, March 4, 2008

Just months after Burt's Bees issued a challenge to the personal-care products industry to clean up its "natural" products labeling practices, Whole Foods Markets has launched a labeling initiative of its own. The Austin, Texas-based retailer says it will award some 1,200 of the personal-care products it sells with a new Premium Body Care seal of approval.

 

 

The company says it's making the move due to growing confusion over just what the word "natural" might mean on a personal care product. Currently, there are no standards for such labeling.

"So a company might make a product that really is natural, and label it as such," says Daniel Fabricant, VP/scientific and regulatory affairs at the Natural Products Association, Washington, D.C., "or it could be made of nine synthetic ingredients, with just a little plant extract thrown in."

The confusion has gotten worse in recent years, as consumers have flocked to "natural" products, often made by the world's biggest consumer-products companies, not tiny mom-and-pop organic shops. Johnson & Johnson's Aveeno line, for example, contains oatmeal, soy and other natural ingredients but has been panned by some for its use of petroleum byproducts. The Natural Marketing Institute says sales of such products grew by 15% in 2005, for example, while the overall U.S. cosmetics and toiletries market grew by 3.5%.

Last spring, Burt's Bees launched its own initiative, after a Yankelovich study it commissioned found that 78% of consumers believed that "natural" claims are regulated, when they are not. What's more, 83% of women think the term should have one standard definition. So Burt's Bees, which has since been acquired by Clorox Co., launched "Burt's Bill," ultimately collecting more than 30,000 consumer signatures, a spokesperson says.

Since then, it has worked closely with the NPA to come up with a set of standards that would cover the whole industry. "There are also four different standards in use in Europe," says the BB spokesperson. "Ultimately, we'd like to get them all under one banner, to eliminate consumer confusion. We should all know exactly what we mean when we say 'Natural'."

The Whole Foods standard calls for:

• Milder preservatives, and no parabens or formaldehyde-releasing preservatives

• Gentler surfactants, including decyl polyglucose and sodium stearoyl lactylate

• All natural fragrances, with no synthetics

• Physical, not chemical, sunscreens, such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide

"Customers have been bombarded with brands and products claiming to be 'natural,' which can be confusing," Whole Foods says in its release. "Our goal is to provide an alternative approach for our customers, so they know that when they see the Premium Body Care seal they are getting safer, higher quality personal care products."

Some, but not all, of Burt's Bees products will have the Whole Foods sticker, for example. "Some products have been excluded because they contain a synthetic fragrance," says the Burt's Bees spokesperson.

The personal-care products industry has come under closer and closer scrutiny, as watchdog groups have stepped up their challenges. The Environmental Working Group, for example, maintains a cosmetics database, which allows consumers to look up ingredients in personal-care products, blowing the whistle on potentially harmful substances in everything from air freshener to baby shampoo.

For its part, NPA hopes to have its standards in place by May, says Fabricant. "We're definitely supportive of Whole Foods, and glad it has a policy that covers its shelves. But there are thousands of other retailers out there, and since so many of these products are sold in mass-market channels, there's definitely a great deal of consumer confusion. And misuse of the word 'natural' is rampant," he says. "And at the end of the day, we all want the same thing -- for consumers to know exactly what they're buying."