NSF/ANSI 305 Personal Care Standard

NSF’s New “Contains Organic Ingredients” Standard for Personal Care Products Adopted as American National Standard

NSF International recently announced that NSF/ANSI 305: Personal Care Products Containing Organic Ingredients was adopted as an American National Standard. NSF/ANSI 305 is the first and only American National Standard that allows labeling and marketing requirements for personal care products that contain organic ingredients. The NSF 305 personal care logo will identify personal care products that have achieved certification to the standard.

NSF/ANSI 305 establishes materials, processes, production criteria and conditions specifically for personal care products that contain organic ingredients. NSF/ANSI 305 allows “contains organic ingredients” claims for products with organic content of 70 percent (O70) or more that comply with all other requirements of the standard. Products covered by the standard include rinse-off and leave-on personal care and cosmetic products, as well as oral care and personal hygiene products.

NSF/ANSI 305 is also the only consensus-based standard for “contains organic ingredients” personal care products, which means it was developed based on balanced participation from key stakeholder groups, including organic personal care manufacturers, trade associations, regulators, organic program administrators, organic product retailers, and other stakeholders from the organic products community.

“We are very pleased to announce that NSF/ANSI 305 is now an American National Standard,” said Jane Wilson, NSF Standards Director. “This 'contains organic ingredients' standard reflects the dedicated efforts of the stakeholders’ work and provides the foundation for consistent national voluntary requirements for ‘made with organic’ personal care products.”

For more information on the new standard, please contact Lorna Badman at badman@nsf.org or 734-827-6806 or click here to view the Q&A. To purchase a copy of the standard, click here.