News, analysis and insight on global organic certification, standards and regulations.

On December 16 and 17th, 2025, respectively the European Commission published a ‘proposal’ to amend the main European Regulation on organic production and labelling (Regulation 2018/848) and a ‘Roadmap Organic rulebook fit for the future’. This article summarises the proposed targeted amendments in the former to share with the global organic community engaged with the EU market what is coming down the track. The motivations for the changes are quoted as being ‘adjustments to certain production rules to create a more efficient, effective, and user-friendly regulatory framework.’

A task force under the International Accreditation Forum (now merged with ILAC to become Global Accreditation Cooperation) has been working for several years on an ‘informative document’ to harmonise accreditation body approaches to accreditation of organic certification bodies. The document is undergoing a final approval vote membership before publication. The task force was led by COFRAC (French AB) and IOAS but considered many contributions from other ABs and interested parties. The document follows the structure of ISO/IEC 17011:2017, the requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies. It provides guidance on assessor competence, documentation needed at application,

requirements for CB transfer, typical CAB policy and procedures, required assessment activities, risk-based approaches and considerations for witness and compliance (review) audits.

Although an informative document, which means that ABs are not obliged to fully comply with its requirements, it is hoped that it will lead to greater consistency of accreditation in this sector as well as being a source of information for regulators and CABs. The document is expected to be published in the first half of 2026.

New Zealand is implementing a new national organic standard under the Organic Products and Production Act 2023 (OPPA). It establishes mandatory regulations for ‘organic’ labelling, with specific standards and rules (Organic Standards Regulations 2025) coming into force by March 31, 2028, requiring government approval for operators and ensuring compliance for domestic and export markets.

OPPA was passed in March 2023. This Act mandates that all products labelled ‘organic’ must meet government-recognised standards, ie Organic Standards Regulations 2025. These regulations, established under the 2023 Act, detail the specific rules for organic production and processing.

Operators must be approved and overseen by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). The core standards for most organic products become mandatory from March 31, 2028.

All businesses selling or marketing products as organic in NZ must comply with the new national standard. The regulations cover the production and processing of organic food, beverages, plants, and animal products. Rules detail acceptable inputs, management of parallel production, and veterinary treatment in livestock.

All imported organic products need to meet the standard New Zealand legal requirements for imported food. There are also additional requirements, depending on the type of organic product being imported and its final use. See more details.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has led the development and implementation of the standards and overseeing compliance. The peak body for the sector (Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ)) was actively involved in developing the legislation. MPI issue a regular news update that interested parties can subscribe to.

We already know that certification provides a guarantee for consumers and support for producers, both because it offers guidance on how to produce in accordance with certain concepts demanded by society, and because it allows them to use labels or indications that help them to market their products.

In addition, certification is particularly relevant in sectors that are not officially regulated, such as natural and organic cosmetics, because with so much confusion and so much greenwashing in the market, conscientious consumers need a clear tool that enable them to buy real natural cosmetics.

The first advantage of a certification is that it has to follow a certain standard. A standard that is published and that all those interested can consult. The concept of ‘natural’ can be interpreted in many ways in sectors other than food, people having a different idea on what natural means to them. In fact, many cosmetics consumers do not clearly distinguish the differences between organic, natural or even vegan. Therefore, it is crucial to count on a standard that defines the concepts and also defines the criteria applied to approve ingredients according to their origin and extraction methods.

Additionally, external supervision by an independent body always helps the laboratory. The principle that ‘four eyes see more than two’ should be fully applied to cosmetics, where there are so many details to consider and reviews to do before launching a product to the market that something can always slip through the net.

Why is certification so important regarding ingredients?

For everybody used to dealing with certification issues, it is clear that a product claiming to be organic has to hold a certificate issued by a recognised certification body and according to a published standard.

But not everybody has this basic concept so clear. Laboratories without experience in organic cosmetics may accept ingredients from their suppliers without requiring their certificate. In fact, there are non-organic ingredients sold as organic, just because the supplier says it is organic and there are also cosmetics sold as organic just because the laboratory or the trader uses the word ‘organic’ or ‘bio’ or ‘ecological’ in the label without any basis.

If the cosmetic product is certified, it is accepted that an ingredient is identified as organic, it is organic.

In addition to clearly identifying which ingredients can be approved and which are organic, cosmetics have a peculiarity: there are quite a few ingredients with the same INCI name (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) that can be of natural or petrochemical origin.

Therefore, there is no way of knowing whether they are natural or not, unless all their technical documentation has been carefully reviewed. That is why those apps that make simple lists of ‘good’, ‘bad’ or ‘not so bad’ according to unknown criteria, and which many people carry on their mobile phones when they go shopping, are of dubious value, because if the concept for classifying an ingredient as ‘good’ is because it is natural, the same ingredient name could be on the ‘good’ or on the ‘bad’ list.

It occurs because the INCI name corresponds to the chemical structure of the ingredient, not to its origin. The chemical composition of petrochemical ingredients is made of combinations of C, H, O and N, same as the natural ingredients. An example of this is the chemical structure of the ingredient Propanediol, which is: C3H8O2, and it has this same formula whether it is derived from plants or petroleum, and this is why it is called Propanediol, the same in both cases.

Some examples:

There are ingredients such as Propanediol, whose name sounds like a chemical, but it may be natural. It is a humectant used as a solvent or as a viscosity control agent.

If it is of petrochemical origin it comes from petroleum refining or natural gas cracking. There are different methods to obtain Propanediol from this origin. One can be following a process of oxidation, where Propylene Oxide is obtained, and from it by hydrolysis, the result is Propanediol.

If it is of natural origin it comes from sugar coming from plants such as maize. Then a process of fermentation is followed, using different microorganisms such as the bacteria Clostridium botycurom.

If Propanediol is of natural origin, both the plant from where it comes (maize) and the bacteria used for the fermentation process can contain or be of GMO origin. This is another aspect that natural cosmetics certification check, to avoid that GMOs are used.

There are other ingredients with names that sound natural but can also be of petrochemical origin. For example, Menthol. It is an alcohol, present in essential oils if it is natural. It can be used as a flavour in perfumes and also possesses itching relief, cooling, refreshing, antibacterial and blood circulation stimulating properties.

If menthol is natural it comes from different species of the mint family such as Menta piperita or Menta arvensis. The process starts by steam distillation of the mint leaf, where mint essential oil is obtained. The oil contains several compounds, including menthol, menthone, limonene, etc. After fractional crystallisation or cooling of the oil, the menthol crystallises due to its low melting point (42–44 °C) and finally, the menthol crystals are separated by filtration.

If Menthol is produced by chemical synthesis, different methods can be applied. One of the most typical uses m-Cresol (from petroleum aromatics) as the starting point. m-Cresol is alkylated to form thymol, and then, Thymol is catalytically hydrogenated to menthol.

As an additional note we can comment in this point that many substances that perform the role of perfumes, as Thymol, Limonene, Linalool, Geraniol, Eucalyptol and others can also be of natural or petrochemical origin.

There is another possible consideration with ingredients in cosmetics that come from a natural origin, but then, due to their extraction method, contains a significant percentage if petrochemical molecules. This means they are not totally natural.

An example of this is Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, known as SCI. This is a surfactant widely used to make solid cosmetic products, such as solid shampoos, because it is a solid ingredient, not liquid as the surfactants used to make liquid shampoos and bath gels are. It can also be used for hair conditioning.

The final product is only around 70 % natural and considering that surfactants are usually the main ingredient in the formula of a shampoo, cosmetics products using SCI cannot be considered a natural product at all. None of the serious natural cosmetic standards approve this ingredient. However, cosmetic products can often be seen on the market using SCI claiming to be natural, or even ‘100 % natural’.

However, SCI cannot be 100 % natural because is made by esterification of coconut fatty acids with isethionic acid and this ingredient is not natural.

In conclusion: cosmetics are a complex subject, and any simplification in claims and messages to consumers is often misleading. Therefore, consumers who want to buy natural or organic cosmetics do not need to be experts in cosmetics, they just need to recognise the few labels used by products certified by professional certifiers that follow recognised cosmetic standards.

The World of Organic Agriculture 2026 will be presented at BioFach Nuremberg and be available to download soon: 2025 version is available here containing detailed statistics on organic farming around the world.

BioEcoActual Yearbook 2025-26 published and available free. The publication covers key organic news and developments from 2025 and looks forward to trends in 2026.

Did you know?: France has the largest area of organic production in the EU — about 17% of the total. Spain, Italy, Germany come next. Between 2012 and 2022 the organic production area in Croatia quadrupled. Source: Eurostat