The use of the term 'natural' and 'organic' has long been subject to 'green-washing' with the terms liberally used as marketing tools in the skincare industry.

It is not surprising, therefore, that a US based consumer watchdog, the Centre for Environmental Health (CEH), has launched a lawsuit against 26 companies, arguing that they have mislabelled their products by using the term organic.

The lawsuit is set to trigger a debate in an area that is of interest to consumers but has long been ignored by regulators. Whilst organic food labelling is strictly controlled the USDA and FDA have no guidelines regarding the use of 'natural' or 'organic' on personal care products. California, however, does which has led to CEH launching the lawsuit in California.

Under Californian law 70% or more of ingredients muct be organic if the term 'organic' is included on the front of a product, otherwise, the term organic is limited to specific ingredients on the ingredients label. There is no requirement that the active ingredients be amongst the organic listing.

Here at POD we are constantly surprised to find that companies are still able to 'green-wash' consumers into believing that their products are more natural or greener than their ingredient listing. It is our view that anything that empowers consumers to know what they are putting on their skin is a good thing. We have purposefully steered away from the big natural and organic names and pioneered the use of fair-labelling to let consumers know the source of each ingredient.

We will watch the debate in California and report back!