QAI Senior Vice President to Present at BioFach 2009
Presentation will Focus on New Personal Care Standard for Organic Industry
Nuremberg, Germany (Vocus) February 9, 2009
What
Joe Smillie, Quality Assurance International (QAI) Senior Vice President, will introduce a new standard for organic personal care products and its impact on the organic industry at BioFach 2009. BioFach is the world's largest trade fair for organic products and natural personal care and wellness.
Smillie will highlight the differences of NSF Draft Standard 305: Organic Personal Care Products against the other personal care standards' requirements, review the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) requirements and discuss new green chemistry initiatives.
When/Where
His presentations will take place at the Nürnberg exhibition centre in Nuremberg, Germany at the following times:
"Natural Cosmetics in USA, Brazil, and Asia" - Thursday, February 19 at Vivaness Forum (http://www. biofach. de/en/review/congress/vivanessforum/), the trade fair for natural personal care and wellness, 2:00-3:00 p. m. "Evolution of Organic Cosmetic Standards" - Thursday, February 19 at 4:00 - 5:30 p. m. "Organic Monitor....Organic Personal Care Master Class" - Friday, February 20 at 2:00 - 6:00 p. m.
Who Should Attend
Key stakeholders, such as cosmetic manufacturers, food and natural products manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, wholesalers, agriculture producers, service providers, importers, retailers and industry organizations should plan on attending.
Background on the Standard
NSF Draft Standard 305: Organic Personal Care Products encourages the manufacturing of personal care products using organically-grown ingredients within the supply chain. NSF 305 is aligned with the USDA NOP program and specifies materials, processes, production criteria, and conditions that shall be met in order for personal care products to make organic label and marketing claims under this standard. The standard encourages the use of organically-grown ingredients within the manufacturing of personal care products.
NSF 305 is a "made with organic ingredient" standard, which means it allows made with organic claims for products with a minimum organic content of 70 percent (O70) or more that comply with the standard. The consensus standard was developed through involvement of those who are directly and materially affected by the scope of the standard via the American National Standards Institute's (ANSI) development process. This process ensures balanced input from industry representatives, public health/regulatory officials, and users/consumer representatives. Organic personal care manufacturers, trade associations, regulators, organic program administrators, organic product retailers, and other stakeholders from the organic products community participated in the development of the new organic personal care standard.
QAI plans to certify to the new standard as soon as it is approved and available. QAI is accredited by the USDA and IOAS to provide independent, third-party organic certification services to the organic food industry.
Background on the Speaker
Joe Smillie is the Senior Vice President of Quality Assurance International, a San Diego, California-based certification agency. He manages the company's eastern U. S. and Canada sales, operations, government regulatory affairs, and international business development. He has been involved in the organic movement and industry since 1975 as a farmer, inspector, consultant, author and certification agent. Smillie has become a recognized authority on all aspects of organic production, National Organic Program (NOP) regulations and international trade. He has been instrumental in protecting the integrity of organic products and advancing the growth of the organic industry. In January 2006, he was appointed to the National Organic Standards Board to serve a five-year term as the certification representative.
For more information about Smillie's presentations, please contact Cristin Kerwin at 734.827.5627 or ckerwin(at)nsf. org.
For more information on BioFach, visit http://www. biofach. de/en/press/ars12/ars25/?arspageid=25.pm.4805 (http://www. biofach. de/en/press/ars12/ars25/?arspageid=25.pm.4805). Additional topics will include green fashion, natural textiles, organic and natural personal care products.
The current version of the draft standard is available at:
Http://standards. nsf. org/apps/group_public/document. php? document_id=263 (http://standards. nsf. org/apps/group_public/document. php? document_id=263)
Quality Assurance International (QAI, Inc.), founded in 1989, is the organic industry leader in certification services with operations in the U. S., Canada, Japan and the European Union. Clients include agricultural producers, food processing facilities, integrated manufacturing operations, contract packing operations, traders, distributors, and retailers. QAI's programs verify organic compliance at every link of the product handling chain, thus assuring consumers that product integrity is preserved in the marketplace. QAI is a pioneer in the organic industry and remains dedicated to fostering sustainable agriculture and promoting a healthy planet. For more information, visit www. qai-inc. com.
Contact:
Julie Lunn
The Fresh Ideas Group
303-449-2108 x. 10
Julie (at) freshideasgroup. com
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