Understanding Certified Organic vs "Purely Natural" Ingredients
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What do you want to read?
1. What Does "Organic" Actually Mean and Why Should You Care?
2. The reality of Certifying ingredients from wild harvested fruits and seeds
3. The solution: Primegreen’s Guarantee
4. Purely Natural Ingredients
5. Using Primegreen’s Ingredients in Certified Cosmetics
6. The Bottom Line: Quality Over Certificates
7. The choice is yours. The quality is guaranteed.
A practical guide to ingredient quality and certifications
1. What Does "Organic" Actually Mean and Why Should You Care?
When we talk about organic ingredients, we're referring to how they're grown and processed. Organic farming follows strict guidelines that protect both the environment and the final product quality.
The opposite of organic is conventional farming, which can typically use:
- Synthetic pesticides and herbicides.
- Chemical fertilizers.
- Growth hormones and antibiotics (for animal products).
- GMOs (genetically modified organisms).
These conventional methods can leave residues in ingredients that you definitely don't want in your cosmetic formulations.
So what are Certified Organic Ingredients?
As explained on the EU commission’s website, Certified Organic ingredients are the ingredients that have passed through all the regulatory hoops:
- Had their entire supply chain audited.
- Passed extensive EU organic standards lab testing.
One of the objectives in organic production is to reduce the use of external inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and food additives. Only substances and compounds listed as approved in Regulation (EU) 2021/1165 can be used in organic production.
This regulation establishes the specific lists of permitted substances and products for organic production.
Other key principles of the EU Organic Food regulation 2018/848 include the prohibition of the use of:
- Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO).
- Ionising radiation.
- Hormones and restricting the use of antibiotics to only when necessary for animal health.
The rules cover all stages of production, preparation and distribution (from primary production to storage, processing, transport, distribution and supply to the final consumer).
When the ingredients are produced outside of the EU, they must meet the same EU standards or originate from countries with equivalence agreements or recognized control bodies (listed in Regulation (EU) 2024/2140). At Primegreen we work with producers who are certified by the certification body IBD, Control Union and Ecocert. We, Primegreen, are certified by the Dutch certification body SKAL, as we are based in the Netherlands.
Primegreen’s certificate is available here
To import ingredients as ‘Certified Organic, under the EU Organic Food regulation 2018/848, it is required to import these ingredients into the EU with a Certificate of Inspection (COI). The COI is an electronic document required for the import of organic products into the European Union (EU) and other European countries like Switzerland, UK, verifying they meet the required organic standards. This COI certificate ensures the traceability and integrity of organic products and helps prevent fraud.
2. The reality of Certifying ingredients from wild harvested fruits and seeds
To be able to sell ingredients as Certified Organic, every single link in the value chain must be Certified as Organic, including the wild harvesting communities or the private individuals providing fruits and seeds that are processed into oils and butters.
Getting organic certification requires significant administrative skills, expertise, time, and money. For a small wild harvesting community in the Amazon, this process can be nearly impossible, even if they're picking the most pristine fruits and seeds directly from the biodiverse and 100% organic trees surrounding their communities.
An oil or a butter can be produced from raw materials provided by 10 different small communities. If 9 of them are certified organic and 1 is not certified as organic, then the ingredient cannot be sold as certified organic throughout the entire value chain.
This provides us with a dilemma:
- You as our customer, want a guarantee that all your ingredients are organic. You feel that the ultimate guarantee is the certification as organic.
- At the same time, the reality is that not all traditional Amazon communities will be certified organic. Even if they receive enough support to become certified, the costs involved will push them out of the market.
- Organic production practices are a knock-out criterium in the selection of new growing partners of Primegreen. So buying from us guarantees the quality you look for, regardless of the certification.
3. The solution: Primegreen’s Guarantee
Whether an ingredient comes with official certification or not, every Primegreen ingredient undergoes:
Rigorous Testing
- Complete lab analysis by a lab certified by ISO 17025.
- Residue testing for pesticides and heavy metals.
- Quality verification at multiple stages
Full Traceability
- Direct relationships with growers
- Complete supply chain documentation.
- Regular farm visits and quality assessments. We visit them personally (both harvesting communities and production area).
4. Purely Natural Ingredients
Based on Primegreen’s guarantee, we offer "Purely Natural" ingredients, which are:
- Grown using traditional, chemical-free methods.
- Cultivated by growing partners who've never used synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Some ingredients are even wild-harvested from pristine environments, often far from industrial pollution.
- Processed using mechanical methods only (cold-pressing, centrifugation).
- Often purer than some certified organic ingredients
The only difference? They haven't gone through the expensive and administrative intense certification process.
5. Using Primegreen’s Ingredients in Certified Cosmetics
Let’s be clear, the EU Organic Food regulation 2018/848 on organic production and labelling of organic products only applies to the food sector. Such an organic regulation doesn’t exist for the cosmetic ingredients.
If you want to claim on your products that you are using organic ingredients in your products, you are not allowed to use the green leaf as the EU Organic Food regulation 2018/848 doesn’t include cosmetics. Instead, cosmetics can carry organic claims if certified under private standards.
Some examples of Cosmetic standards you might want to apply to and how you could perfectly work with our ingredients to achieve these certifications:
For COSMOS Certification:
COSMOS Organic:
- At least 95% of the physically processed agro-ingredients* (PPAI) in your formula must be certified organic.
- At least 20% of the total ingredients of your final formula must be certified organic. For rinse-off products, or certain product types, this minimum may be reduced to 10%.
*physically processed agro-ingredients (PPAI): These ingredients undergo only mechanical or physical changes, not chemical transformations e.g cold pressing, chopping, grinding, milling, blending, drying, filtration …
Primegreen’s Organic certificate available HERE.
The remaining non-organic ingredients must be from the COSMOS Approved list or have a COSMOS approved form filled in. This may seem complex but is surprisingly easy. In fact, we, as Primegreen can fill out the form for you!
Contact here to request the relevant COSMOS Approved form for the ingredients you purchased.
- Water and minerals are excluded from being counted as organic (they lower the % since they are non-organic).
- Packaging, manufacturing, sourcing must meet COSMOS standard regarding sustainability, processing and forbidden substances.
For more information on the COSMOS standard, please check it here
COSMOS Natural:
No minimum organic percentage required - our 'Purely Natural' ingredients are perfect here!
Why? Cosmos Natural is a label meant for the final product, while Cosmos Approved refers to the ingredients Cosmos Certification. Cosmos Approved ingredients can be used in final products carrying the Cosmos Natural label.
Based on the form we can fill out for you, COSMOS will decide if they approve the ingredient as Cosmos Approved. They will approve all our ingredients as they are exempt of all substances that are not allowed (The Primegreen Guarantee).
For more information on the COSMOS standard, please check it here
For NATRUE Certification:
All our oils and butters (Certified Organic and Purely Natural) meet NATRUE's "Natural" ingredient requirements:
- Plant origin.
- Only physical/mechanical processing.
- No synthetic additives or chemical modifications.
- GMO-free
However, we've chosen to concentrate our certification efforts on EU Organic compliance and UEBT membership rather than NATRUE registration.
This means our ingredients can't be used if you're seeking NATRUE certification for your products.
6. The Bottom Line: Quality Over Certificates
Here's what we believe: a certificate doesn't make an ingredient pure - the way it's grown, harvested, and processed does.
When you choose Primegreen, we guarantee with both our Certified Organic and Purely Natural Ingredients:
- Transparency: We'll always tell you exactly what certification status each ingredient has and what it means for the label on your newly formulated product.
- Quality: Meeting and exceeding the quality norms in our TDSs, verified by ISO 17025 certified labs.
- Traceability: Complete technical dossier available including origin of each ingredient and videos to show you who is behind the ingredients we supply.
7. The choice is yours. The quality is guaranteed.
CTA 1: Explore our Purely Natural and Certified Organic Ingredients
CTA 2: Explore our Certified Organic Ingredients
CTA 3: Questions about specific ingredients or need certification documentation? We're here to help you make the best choice for your formulations. Contact our expert HERE.