What does Organic Certification mean?
As the labelling standards in Australia are open to all sorts of interpretation some of the label claims on products on the shelf here reflect anything but what is in them. You can call just about anything “organic” and get away with it.
Depending on the formulation there are 3 categories in which skin care products can fall.
- Under 70% organic content are to be described as non organics
- Over 70% is described as containing certified organic ingredients
- Over 95% organic content can be termed certified organic
The Organic Food Chain (OFC) also applies the rule that water and minerals CANNOT be counted as certified organic ingredients. In some cases water can count as part of the certified organic ingredients. This means that a product containing a lot of water could be certified as organic just because it contains over 70% water. The rest of the formulation may contain any sort of chemical cocktail!The OFC does not consider water and minerals to be organic, and such to achieve certified organic status with the OFC, OrganicSpa have spent countless hours carefully formulating their products so quality and effectiveness are maximised.
The balance of the formula, not including water and minerals, MUST be of natural origin and therefore can not include ingredients such as normal preservatives eg. Parabens, Potassium sorbate, Sodium benzoate, etc. nor should the preservatives be hidden in terms like Parfum.