The Soil Association logo - still trusted

The Soil Association has announced a new EU-wide, harmonised standard for organic health and beauty products.

This is the first common standard in the world that is intended to ensure clarity and transparency for both consumers and the trade at a time when the organic health and beauty market growing rapidly.

In 2008, UK sales of organic health and beauty products increased an impressive 69% to £27 million.

It is hoped that the new Cosmos standard will lift some of the confusion surrounding organic certification standard and hope to ensure that certification bodies are playing by the same rules.

Francis Blake, director of Soil Association standards said:

This new harmonised standard is a real breakthrough for consumers and for the organic health and beauty industry and we hope it will be used as an international blue print.

Application to use this standard is open to all certification bodies from 30 September.

The new ‘COSMOS-standard’ is the result of six year’s work in collaboration with five other European organisations. It also covers the regulation of ‘natural’ cosmetics. The objective of this new standard is ambitious and goes further than all current requirements for organic and natural cosmetics.

After an international public consultation of three months the European Cosmetics Standards Working Group has now published the final COSMOS-standard online at www.cosmos-standard.org

Current organic brands will have a three-year transition period if they need to alter formulations and labelling. Any new organic brands will have to adhere to these new standards immediately.