Poll Identifies Organic and Natural Consumer Preferences
Mambo Sprouts Marketing MamboTrack research revealed 8 in 10 natural and organic consumers regularly read ingredient labels for health and nutrition content and were interested in buying functional foods with added health, nutrition and dietary benefits, with 39 percent very interested in these types of specialty foods.

Consumers expressed the most desire for foods with organic ingredients (65 percent) and low-sodium grocery items (47 percent) followed by low-fat/cholesterol (39 percent) and vegetarian items (31 percent). Functional food products with added calcium (44 percent), omega-3 (44 percent), antioxidants (43 percent), probiotics/prebiotics (38 percent), and vitamin D (30 percent) were also preferred.

The study noted interest in specific ingredient-free foods, with one in three natural product consumers seeking allergen-free foods. Shoppers were most likely to report buying gluten-free/wheat-free items (25 percent), followed by dairy-free foods (9 percent). Fewer avoided soy (6 percent) or peanuts (4 percent). More than four in 10 gluten-free buyers felt gluten-free products were healthier for their family (43 percent). Another one in three had a household member with celiac disease or wheat intolerance or indicated that their favorite brands were gluten-free already.

Packaging is a key factor in brand buying decisions: 40 percent recently tried a new brand or switched brands, specifically because it had more earth-friendly packaging; 66 percent bought products with recyclable packaging or packaging made of recycled materials, and 44 percent bought products with compostable/ biodegradable packaging. The Mambo Sprouts Marketing Quick Poll was completed online among 600 MamboTrack health and natural product consumers.


OTA and Whole Foods Both Take a Stance on Organic Personal Care
To clean up confusion in organic personal care, this summer the Organic Trade Association (OTA) released a position statement on the issue. Additionally, around the same time this was being drafted, Whole Foods Market also made its position clear by creating a new organic personal care policy. Both send the same message—organic personal care needs to be regulated by the National Organic Program.

OTA’s Position on Personal Care
In its recently released statement, the OTA makes two main points in an effort to move the organic personal care industry forward while protecting the organic claim:

• “OTA supports mandatory public (federal government) regulation of organic labeling claims on personal care products.” This includes third-party certification, strong mechanisms for compliance, and removal of products from the market that have no organic content but make an organic claim.

• “OTA supports the development and adoption by NOP of an organic personal care standard and will work with its members, with USDA/NOP and with members of Congress, as necessary, to reach this goal.” USDA regulation is the best way to achieve consistency with existing NOP labeling, mechanisms for oversight and minimize consumer confusion.

OTA’s statement also recognizes the distinct needs of personal care product formulation and says that the new standard should take these needs into consideration, incorporating the best of existing private personal care standards, while safeguarding organic integrity.

Whole Foods’ New Policy on Personal Care—Compliance Required By June 1, 2011
Whole Foods is also supporting NOP regulated personal care. In its new policy statement, Whole Foods says: “We believe that the ‘organic’ claim used on personal care products should have very similar meaning to the ‘organic’ claim used on food products, which is currently regulated by the USDA’s National Organic Program. Our shoppers do not expect the definition of ‘organic’ to change substantially between the food and the non-food aisles of our stores. Accordingly, the following requirements apply to all personal care products which use the word ‘organic’ in any way on the product label.”

Whole Foods expects all products sold in stores to be in full compliance by June 1, 2011 and each of its suppliers that make an “organic” claim to submit their plans for compliance by August 1, 2010. Specific labeling requirements are available by contacting Joe Dickson (joe.dickson@wholefoods.com) in the Quality Standards department.