Noticias
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Coming Clean Campaign
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2008
CONTACT: Adam Eidinger 202-744-2671
Ronnie Cummins 218 226-4164
OCA and Dr. Bronner's Offer Companies a Contract to Address Organic Misbranding and Labeling in Personal Care
New Survey Shows Consumers are Deceived
by Mislabeled Product Claims
FINLAND, MN - The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps today made a settlement offer to bodycare companies who have misbranded their products as "Organic" or "Organics" despite the fact that their cleansing ingredients are actually made from non-organic conventional and/or petrochemical material preserved with petrochemical preservatives. The offer is an attempt to give leading body care brands a chance to resolve claims made earlier this month against them, without litigation.
Companies that ignore the offer will face a legal challenge by OCA and Dr. Bronner's under California law. To help convince the mislabeled brands to act, they were provided a professionally conducted detailed survey of California organic bodycare consumers which found that these consumers expect products with organic branding and label call-outs to contain main ingredients based on organic, not conventional, agriculture, free of petroleum compounds. The survey also showed that Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, certified under the USDA National Organic Program to make a "Made with Organic Oils" claim, where all cleansing ingredients are made with organic not conventional material, was considered not as organic as brands that use conventional and/or petrochemical material without any organic material in their main ingredients, simply because of the way the products are branded.
In a cover letter sent with the contract offer, OCA National Director Ronnie Cummins and Dr. Bronner's President David Bronner wrote: "Through the "Coming Clean" campaign, the OCA and supporting companies like Dr. Bronner's tried for years to clean the situation up through various educational and advocacy efforts short of litigation. After five years of frustration, we have created the only situation we realize will effectively incentivize the necessary changes, and are fully prepared to litigate and publicize each step of such litigation. However, we look forward to resolving this situation short of actual litigation, and will publicly celebrate and move forward with any and all parties who agree contractually to the straightforward terms in the attached contract. Our intention remains to clean the situation up, and not to drag culprit brands through the mud longer than necessary."
Two weeks ago, the issue of fake organic brands was the talk at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA when the OCA announced a study performed at an independent laboratory that found numerous "Natural" and "Organic" brands tested positive for 1,4 Dioxane, a cancer causing contaminant resulting from the petrochemical Ethylene Oxide being attached to one or more ingredients. At that same time "Cease and Desist" letters were sent to bogus organic brands including some who tested positive in the study, informing them they have until April 20, 2008, to pledge to remove all claims by September 1, 2008 that they are "Organic". The settlement offer sent today to companies allows offending brands to reformulate using organic materials with no petrochemical com-pounds in their main ingredients, and thereby to maintain their organic branding if they make meaningful changes.
The contract also addresses the deceptive practice of counting regular water as "organic" content in personal care products when used as an extracting medium for organic botanicals. Organic water extracts may contribute organic content equal to at most the total original "juice" content of the starting botanical material. OCA has fought for strong organic bodycare standards for the past five years through its "Coming Clean" Campaign. A copy of the contract cover letter and offer, and new consumer survey can be found on the "Coming Clean" webpage: www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/