Organic Personal Care Products

Personal care products sold in the U.S. that make organic claims such as "100% Organic," "Organic" and "Made with Organic" are eligible for review under the USDA National Organic Program (NOP). But because these regulations were designed for food, they cannot be applied to some personal care products like soaps and lotions that contain non-food ingredients and go through different manufacturing processes.

To address this gap, NSF/ANSI 305: Personal Care Products Containing Organic Ingredients was created. This standard defines both production and labeling requirements for personal care products containing organic ingredients, and covers a variety of products intended for external use on any part of the body, including foundation and lipstick, moisturizers and lotions, and soaps, shower gels and bath beads.

To become certified to NSF/ANSI 305, products must undergo a thorough review by an accredited organic certifying organization to verify that a manufacturer’s product formulation contains at least 70 percent organic content by weight. Similar to the NOP regulations for other organic products, the NSF “contains organic ingredients” standard also has specific requirements for organic ingredient, material, process and production specifications.

For a list of NSF/ANSI 305 certified personal care products or to see if your personal care product is NSF certified, visit the QAI website and select “NSF/ANSI 305” in the Compliance area, then click Search.