Whole Foods Market has announced that all personal care products and cosmetics making an “organic” claim sold in its U.S. stores must be third-party certified by June 1, 2011.

With this new initiative, all products making an “organic” product claim must be certified to the United States Department of Agriculture National Organic Program (USDA NOP) standard, the same standard to which organic food must be certified under U.S. law. Products making a “made with organic ingredients” claim must also be certified to the NOP standard, and products making a “contains organic ingredients” claim must be certified to the NSF 305 ANSI Standard for Organic Personal Care products, a consensus-based industry standard accepted by the American National Standards Institute and managed by NSF International.

The USDA has said that personal care products can be certified to the NOP standard, but such certification is not mandatory for non-food products. To honor the authenticity of the organic label, Whole Foods Market is requiring organic certification to ensure that claims on product labels are accurate.

“At Whole Foods Market, our shoppers do not expect the definition of organic to change substantially between the food and non-food aisles of our stores,” said Joe Dickson, quality standards coordinator, Whole Foods Market. “We believe that the ‘organic’ claim used on personal care products should have just as strong a meaning to the ‘organic’ claim used on food products, which is currently regulated by the USDA’s National Organic Program.”