Non-Food Organic Items Question

[CandyCook]

I've been seeing a lot of organic "stuff," like "organic bed sheets," "organic towels, shirts, etc." I know the USDA certifies the use of the word "organic" on food products... but, who or what is in charge of policing the use of the word "organic" on non-food products? Do non-food products have standards to meet in order to claim organic?

[jujubee]

I found this on the Organic Consumers website:

On the regulation score, for cotton to be certified as organic, it must not be genetically modified at all, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines. The USDA states that 52% of the nation's 2005 crop was genetically engineered, meaning that the seeds have been altered to resist insects in an effort to avoid harmful pesticides. While cotton is a crop that can qualify as "certified organic," there's no "organic clothing" standard set by the USDA that labels a shirt or pants as fully organic.

[jujubee]

I also found this for organic cotton:

* What they don't tell you: The organic label applies only to the growing methods of the cotton in the garment, not the way it is processed, said Kristi Wiedemann, science and policy analyst for Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. That means the product may still have been finished using dyes and other chemicals. Also, just because a garment contains organic cotton doesn't mean it doesn't also have synthetic material. The product should specify how much organic cotton is in the garment.

[kristen.c]

That's a great question Candy! Thanks for the linkage Juju!

[Ayanna]

Originally Posted by CandyCook

I've been seeing a lot of organic "stuff," like "organic bed sheets," "organic towels, shirts, etc." I know the USDA certifies the use of the word "organic" on food products... but, who or what is in charge of policing the use of the word "organic" on non-food products? Do non-food products have standards to meet in order to claim organic?

Short answer there is not one standard company/agency to certify non-food items like the USDA.

There is actually a lot of interesting stuff going on right now especially in the cosmetics side of things about Organic labeling. One big story is Dr. Bronner's suing some other companies because they're calling themselves organic, but using petrochemicals in their ingredients. The company that is trying to do an organic standard for cosmetics is called OASIS and the Organic Consumer's Association is against them right now.

For non-cosmetic non-food items there is basically no standards to labeling and people can say whatever they want on their labels, you just have to read the labels, see if there is a certification company on there then look up that certification companies qualifications and see what they do/don't allow.

When I'm looking at buying new products (cosmetics) I always look it up at the campaign for safe cosmetics website first, either by product or ingredient, they're very good about just listing what ingredients are in there and what hazards may be present.