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The Organic & Natural Health Association Scrap Natural Certification

Recently, the Organic and Natural Health Association held its first ever national conference. Among those that attended included thirty-five leaders in the industry of natural products. The CEO of the Association, Karen Howard, as well as former Senator Mark Pryor led the conference discussions on a new certification in the food industry.

 

The CEO set the tone of the conference by announcing the board’s conclusion after they had assessed the definition of “Natural.” The board’s decision is not what most of the industry would have liked to hear. It was concluded that the term “natural” could not and should not be used as a form of natural certification seal. More so, it should not be used on the product labels or even listed there. For most consumers, “natural” labeled products may soon be a thing of the past. However, the board did say that the term “natural” could be used in the description of particular attributes of the product in materials that are used for marketing and promotion.

Organic vs. Natural is Confusing Consumers

 

According to the research, it was assessed that the term “organic” and the term “natural” are quite confusing to the consumers. When the user is faced with a natural product, they would expect that it was automatically organic, and this is not the case. In the meeting, it was also noted that the consumer has a problem differentiating both of the products. It was this research among other factors that led to the conclusion that the board would not be considering a new “natural” certification seal. The primary reason was not to confuse consumers.

The director reiterated the necessity of increasing focus and encouraging people to go organic. For this, the institution would focus all their energy and resources to strengthen that program and the existing organic certification seal. The first order of business for this would be to support  Organic 3.0. The movement is being led by IFOAN Organics International. The intention is to have leading innovations that are geared towards providing people with sustainable agriculture and healthy products.

Since the public is more reliant on the labels that identify foods as natural, the CEO said that they would also try to make information more accessible to the public on how to identify foods that are organic.

At the same meeting, Howard announced the launch of the “Power of D” campaign which is a year-long outreach campaign that will focus on the benefits of Vitamin D. For this; they will also have an advisory board that helps to tear into the research backing the benefits of the vitamin.

At the close of the conference, the former US senator Mr. Pryor gave his two cents on how to reach out to the office of the attorney general regarding the adverse climate of the supplement industry. He went at length on how the office of the attorney general could help in the practice and how the interaction between the members of the attorney general’s offices and those of the Organic and Health Association would be beneficial.

Inspired by organicandnatural.org