Exclusives

A Brand Campaigns for Non-GMO Personal Care

October is Non-GMO Awareness Month - and if your natural beauty brand sells at Whole Foods, GMO labeling will be required by 2018. Here's how one natural brand is leading this campaign.

October 24, 2013

By: Marie Redding

Senior Editor

Andalou Natural’s bath and body products carry the Non-GMO’s certification seal on its packages.

October has become infamous as Breast Cancer Awareness Month – but October 2013 is also the fourth annual Non-GMO Month.

Did you know that GMOs apply to beauty, as much as food?

Andalou Naturals is one of the few beauty brands certified by the Non-GMO Project – and will be ahead of its competitors in preparing for Whole Foods Market’s new labeling requirements.

By 2018, all products in the retailer’s U.S. and Canadian stores must be labeled to indicate whether they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

In support of the new regulations, and to help spread the news to consumers, Andalou Naturals’ new 2013 campaign for October’s Non-GMO Awareness Month is called, “We support your right to know. GMO labeling equals informed choices.” The campaign includes a sponsorship with the Non-GMO Project, Facebook contests, in-store promotions, giveaways, and trade ads.

Achieving Non-GMO Certification Status

Andalou Naturals‘ has carried the Non-GMO Project certification seal on its packaging for all of its products since January, 2013.

The brand’s formulations are based on fruit stem cells, and its skin, hair care, and body products are also 100% Gluten-Free, vegetarian, cruelty-free, and eco-friendly. Acquiring non-GMO certification was no easy task. It required working with its manufacturers and suppliers to confirm that over 200 source ingredients, as well as the manufacturing process for each ingredient, did not include GMOs.

The brand’s packaging, as well as its in-store displays and promotional materials, incorporate eco-friendly features and materials.

“Our packaging is designed to be beautiful, but also to minimize the shipping materials necessary to protect our products during processing and handling,” says Cristy Cantieri, marketing & communications manager, Andalou Naturals.

Andalou Natural’s Non-GMO campaign for October, Non-GMO Awareness Month.

All of Andalou’s packaging is recyclable – cartons are printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) paperboard; bottles, jars and tubes are BPA-Free. The label laminates on some of the components use one-third less of the sheet material of typical labels.

The brand’s printed materials are also FSC-certified when possible, and always contain post-consumer recycled content. Printing is done with vegetable-based inks that are low VOC and solvent-free. In-store POS displays are also made from recyclable materials, and are reusable.

Is Non-GMO for Personal Care Really Necessary?

Some experts and natural advocates say that whether topically applied and absorbed through the skin, or ingested directly as food, GMO crops effect human health and the environment in the same way – and consumers should be concerned. Andalou Naturals believes that what goes on our body goes in our body.

“Partnering with the Non-GMO Project and achieving third-party verification was consistent with our brand standard to use natural and organic ingredients,” says Stacey Kelly Egide, Andalou Naturals Founder and CEO.

The brand also feels strongly about letting its customers know where its ingredients come from, and about the farmers who grow them. Crops grown for personal care products and food are often from the same farm, the brand says.

“We support the consumer’s right to know what is in their personal care products, and therefore believe that GMO labeling equals informed choices,” explains Cantieri. She continues, “That is why it was important for us to become Non-GMO Project verified. We hope that other brands and retailers follow, because ultimately, it’s about allowing the consumer to choose what is best for themselves and for their family.”

Implementing Whole Foods’ Labeling Requirements

The Non-GMO seal, which can be used on packaging for products that go through a certification process. Whole Foods Market is the first retailer to set a deadline for GMO transparency – 2018 – and the new labeling regulations will affect beauty products.

As the first national grocery chain to set a deadline for full GMO transparency, the process of implementing its new labeling regulations in 2018 may become a model for other retailers to follow.

The retailers’ team plans to examine the ingredient list of each item sold in its Whole Body department, for possible GMO-derived items.

Whole Foods’ blog explains: “As you can see, it’s complicated, and that’s why it will take us five years to work with our more than 100,000 supplier partners to complete the process. To make this happen, we will be rolling out our GMO transparency labeling program by product and category. While overall it will require five years to achieve our goal, we expect the GMO labeling to be completed sooner in some product categories.”

What Will Beauty Brands Need to Do?

If you’re a natural brand selling at Whole Foods – or would like to in the future – you might want to think about beginning the process of investigating the source of every ingredient that your products contain.

If you find that your ingredients contain GMOs, Whole Foods’ has stated that by 2018, they must be clearly labeled as such. Or, begin the process of reformulating, which may be required in order to transition to ingredients that are from non-GMO sources.

Once you are sure your products don’t contain GMOs, the next step is obtaining certification, and the Non-GMO Project can help. The organization has doubled its staff in the past year, in an effort to more efficiently respond to all the requests the organization has been receiving for non-GMO certifications.

In addition to verifying products, the Non-GMO Project is also examining the capabilities of other certifiers, which will be accredited as ‘competent’ to perform third-party audits to the Non-GMO Project’s standards – so they can help point you in the right direction.