Organic Label Only For Foods

(AP)  If you want a lotion, soap or lip balm free of chemicals and synthetics, you'd better read the fine print. The Agriculture Department is taking its round, green "USDA Organic" label off personal care products and cosmetics.

When it created the seal in 2002, the primary intent was to certify the organic claims made by food producers, such as that meat came from animals raised without antibiotics and not confined indoors, or that vegetables were grown without pesticides.

But the department also opened the door to making a wide range of other products eligible for the label: cosmetics and personal care items, pet food, dietary supplements, textiles like cotton T-shirts and fish.

"The feeling was, if your product was composed of agricultural ingredients, and you thought you could get certified, you were welcome to try," said Barbara Robinson, head of the department's National Organic Program.

Three years later, the department decided it had gone too far. In April, it began telling companies their cosmetics and other personal care products can't be government-certified as organic, after all.

Fish and pet food are also off the table, but only for now. The department is creating task forces to make rules for certifying them. Still being decided is whether dietary supplements can use the seal.

"As time went by, and legal counsel in the department and senior policy officials took a closer look, they determined that wouldn't really stand up in a court of law," Robinson said.

That's bad news to Nancy Piersel of Finland, Minn. She looks for the organic seal because she has a disorder called multiple chemical sensitivity, which causes allergy-like symptoms when she's exposed to many substances.

The seal "gave me more confidence to try that product," said Piersel, 48. She makes her own lip gloss and, before the seal became available, would call companies to find out more about ingredients before buying something new.

"I have to be very careful about what I use, because my skin reacts to a lot of things. I get rashes and burning, itching — the same kind of thing you'd get if you had a bad skin reaction to any product," Piersel said. "Now that I won't have those labels, I'll have to do more digging."

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