Organic Products

Besides organic food products, there are an increasing number of products in the market that claim to be organic, including organic beauty products and organic health products. Many consumers are wondering about the petrochemicals byproducts in organic soap and organic beauty products. They have heard that many companies making so-called organic health products are using synthetic surfactants derived from petroleum such as olefin sulfonate, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium myreth sulfate, and paraben preservatives. So the question is are there truly organic products for personal care to purchase now?

The short answer to the question is “yes,” some personal care products that claim to be organic do contain petrochemical surfactants (wetting agents that help products spread) like sodium myreth sulfate and preservatives such as the parabens. However, similar chemical compounds are now being derived from plants. Of the ingredients mentioned above, olefin sulfonate can be derived from petroleum or coconut oil and Cocamidopropyl betaine is derived from coconut using petrochemicals. However, the USDA has yet to adopt a set of standards and practices for organic beauty products, organic health products and organic personal care products. Consequently, the market is full of confusing product labels, because companies regularly label products containing synthetic compounds "natural" and "organic." And since some of the more common chemicals can now be derived from plants, this is made a selling point.

To find out more about the issues surrounding organic products, what organic beauty products you can trust and whether labels on organic health products are truly meaningful, read the articles linked to below.

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