New Nonprofit NAC Seeks ‘Natural’ Legislation, Data-Sharing Forum

California Baby CEO Jessica Iclisoy discusses the newly founded Natural Advisory Council. The organization aims to provide a platform for stakeholder data sharing and discussion of “natural” priorities while educating consumers and pushing for legislation to define “natural” and establish requirements for the term’s use.

The not-for-profit Natural Advisory Council will work to promote legislation defining “natural” as it applies to cosmetics and other consumer products, while facilitating discussion and data sharing among stakeholders to address key challenges facing natural marketers.

In an Oct. 19 interview, Jessica Iclisoy, founder and CEO of California Baby, Inc., provided insight into the group’s objectives and the rationale behind its formation, announced earlier this month.

Iclisoy will serve as one of eight NAC board members that set the organization’s priorities and steer related activities, along with Jan Jänichen, managing director of German raw material supplier Dr. Straetmans GmbH, which specializes in “manufacturing and stabilizing cosmetics using natural methods.”

Christopher Johnson, founder of Hazlet, N.J.-based Kinetik Technologies, Inc., another supplier of “primarily naturally derived specialty raw materials,” also has been named to the board, along with a yet-unannounced fourth member, according to Iclisoy.

She noted that at least one board seat has been set aside for a legislative expert.

NAC and California Baby founder Jessica Iclisoy

In addition to the direction offered by the board, NAC will rely on input from trade associations, consumer advocacy groups and other stakeholder organizations dubbed “Friends of NAC.”

Iclisoy listed the Natural Products Association, Organic Trade Association, Personal Care Products Council and Environmental Working Group as organizations invited to sign on as NAC friends, noting that “a few,” including EWG, have already made verbal commitments to do so.

Rampant “greenwashing” in the marketplace is a central factor in the NAC’s founding. In an Oct. 5 release, the California Baby exec noted that “as the popularity of ‘natural’ and ‘green’ products has skyrocketed, so has the proliferation of greenwashing via clever labeling and misleading brand names.”

“Our aim is to create real, meaningful and lasting change in the naturals market and ensure that consumers are armed with the information they need to make informed purchases,” Iclisoy adds.

Public education will play a prominent role in the NAC’s advocacy work.

“Our first step really is just to educate people on the state of natural,” the exec told the Rose Sheet. “Let’s talk about greenwashing, let’s talk about why that shampoo that’s calling itself ‘natural’ really isn’t.”

Such efforts could help to level the competitive playing field where not all “natural” brands are abiding by the same rules, Iclisoy noted.

For example, California Baby – which is committed to expanding its retail footprint in the US, recently rolling out products to 1,700 Walmart doors – is reserved in its use of natural claims due to the lack of a regulatory definition for the term. (Also see "California Baby Exploring Retail Opportunities Beyond Walmart Rollout" - HBW Insight, 16 Aug, 2016.)

“If you look at California Baby’s label, our website, you will not see any claims that we cannot back up,” the exec asserted. “At the same time you have a lot of natural companies making these outrageous claims, and they will tell you, ‘Well, I’m not breaking the law.’ And that is correct because there is no law.”

In addition to raising awareness among consumers, the NAC aims to educate marketers – “what you can say, what you can’t say” – as well as chemists and other scientists in the industry on the natural landscape and needed improvements, the exec said.

First off, “let’s get the terms down correctly so we can speak a common language,” she said.

Ultimately, the NAC aims to shepherd through a legislative fix – i.e., legislation defining natural and setting out requirements for related claims.

Iclisoy pointed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Organic Program as an example of a statutory framework that stipulates marketing and labeling “do’s and don’ts” and establishes “real consequences” for violators – at least in the food sector.

The program’s applicability to cosmetics is tenuous, and while cosmetics brands can certify their offerings to NOP standards, USDA does not police the personal-care marketplace like it does on the foods side or in any way prohibit organic claims based on private third-party or in-house standards that do not reference USDA or the NOP.

“The USDA is really for food,” Iclisoy noted. “They know about livestock, they know how to grow grapes,” but the NOP standards do not neatly translate to personal care formulation. “You’re basically trying to make a skin-care product out of food ingredients – a lotion with cupcake ingredients,” she suggested.

As for natural, the only definition provided by USDA is in the context of meat and poultry labeling.

“What the NAC means to do is to be an intermediary, a voice of reason that can speak to environmentalists and say, ‘Yeah, we get it, we need to not have synthetic fragrances in the products because they’re endocrine disruptors – we understand where that’s coming from.’ And we can speak the language of industry because we are manufacturers,” Iclisoy said.

From the exec’s perspective, FDA is the appropriate regulatory authority to oversee natural claims on personal-care products. The agency currently is reviewing roughly 7,700 comments submitted on the need for rulemaking to regulate natural labeling in the food and dietary supplement sectors; however, FDA made no mention of cosmetics in its late 2015 request for public feedback. (Also see "FDA Seeks Comment On 'Natural' Food Labeling; Cosmetics Not Mentioned" - HBW Insight, 11 Nov, 2015.)

The Natural Products Association also believes that FDA should take the lead in regulating natural cosmetics, proposing a multi-tiered certification framework similar in structure to the NOP. (Also see "NPA Says Its ‘Natural’ Reg Proposal Jibes With FTC View, Court Trends" - HBW Insight, 5 Aug, 2016.)

NPA currently administers a standard and certification program of its own for natural personal care. Iclisoy acknowledged that private standards exist and could serve as resources in developing legislation that defines the term and requirements for its use.

However, such standards should simply be seen as a “starting point,” she said, suggesting that programs that award natural certification seals to qualifying products too often are driven by their sponsors’ agendas and the priorities of key member companies.

“Trade groups are really there to advance their members’ agenda, and we’re not here to advance anyone’s agenda except for the natural space,” the NAC creator said.

Safe Haven For Data Sharing?

According to Iclisoy, her experience with California Baby qualifies her to head up the NAC and serve as an informed and balanced mediator in industry discussions around natural needs and challenges.

She underscored her 20-plus years of work in the natural/organic skin-care segment, where she has “fought for ingredient integrity from day one,” a mission that has acquainted her with both industry and NGO positions and the disconnects that can hinder progress on initiatives of mutual interest.

“We deal with environmentalists, but we also understand the regulations and how to manufacture products. So if an environmentalist comes up with certain [imperatives], I look at it and am like, ‘How do you actually get that done?’ Because they don’t always have that experience to know that what they’re asking for can be impossible. It’s not that industry doesn’t want to do it – it could be that they cannot do it,” Iclisoy noted.

She pointed out that her brand has extensive experience in producing not only natural/organic formulas, but also drug products – e.g., sunscreens – to FDA standards.

California Baby notes in its release announcing the NAC that the brand “owns and operates a best-in-class, FDA-registered, certified-organic, solar-powered and sustainable manufacturing facility in Los Angeles, as well as an organic farm where organic calendula flowers and other botanicals are grown.”

“We want to collaborate with our raw material suppliers and push them to create new green, sustainable, biodegradable and yet functional ingredients. Look at preservatives – a huge issue, but they’re not even working on it. Our industry is still using preservatives that are 50 years old.”

Iclisoy is confident that her background will enable her to be a trusted point of contact for stakeholders the industry wide on natural issues.

“What NAC means to do is to be an intermediary,” she continued, “a voice of reason that can speak to environmentalists and say, ‘Yeah, we get it, we need to not have synthetic fragrances in the products because they’re endocrine disruptors – we understand where that’s coming from.’ And we can speak the language of industry because we are manufacturers. So we are understanding both sides and we’re there as a neutral party to try to advance the naturals and organic space.”

The NAC also is optimistic about creating a secure environment for data sharing among stakeholders.

“The idea there is that you sign a confidentiality agreement and share your data, and this way we’re not reinventing the wheel. Everybody can share data without fear of repercussion or that somebody is getting a competitive advantage,” Iclisoy said.

Data of interest would include chemical safety information, she said, noting that NGOs and industry groups often have different focuses when it comes to ingredient toxicity issues, or they may define toxicity differently. Combining their data would enable all available information to be evaluated by competent scientific experts without duplicating costly studies that already exist, the exec suggested.

Such assessments then could feed into the development of consensus-backed natural standards, which in turn could be the basis for a legislated regulatory framework, or they could highlight areas where R&D is needed to bring natural alternatives to market as replacements for problematic synthetic ingredients.

Natural Preservatives Could Be Collaboration Priority

That’s where collaboration comes in, the third pillar of the NAC’s mission after advocacy and education.

“We want to collaborate with our raw material suppliers and push them to create new green, sustainable, biodegradable and yet functional ingredients,” Iclisoy said. “Look at preservatives – a huge issue, but they’re not even working on it. Our industry is still using preservatives that are 50 years old.” (Also see "B2B Network Announces Competition To Spur New Preservative Development" - HBW Insight, 15 Jun, 2016.)

Emerging natural brands potentially could benefit from NAC expertise and the information-exchange forum envisioned by the group. Iclisoy noted that she launched California Baby with the objective of developing a safe baby shampoo, which involved finding a natural substitute for the surfactant sodium lauryl sulfate, often used in household and personal-care products for the lathering and cleansing effects it provides.

“Here we are still talking about SLS,” she said. “But guess what? I solved the problem 20 years ago.”

The Honest Company was called out earlier this year for Wall Street Journal testing that allegedly identified SLS in its laundry detergent, contrary to its “Honestly Made Without” claims. The finding was followed by a related class action filing in March. (Also see "Honest Company's SLS-Free Claims At Core Of Nationwide Class Action" - HBW Insight, 28 Mar, 2016.)

Ultimately, any company with a genuine commitment to natural formulation – and to making meaningful natural claims backed by robust substantiation – could stand to benefit from participation in the NAC.

“We need to protect [natural] and not allow our industry to get hijacked,” Iclisoy asserted. “Some companies will come, they’ll dilute the meaning. We need to make sure that it’s real and legitimate so we can make real claims – not soft claims – and that when the consumer picks up a bottle that says ‘natural,’ they’re assured that it is truly natural and they’re getting the value for what they pay.”

California Baby provides additional detail on the NAC on its website.