Naturalness According to ISO 16128

Despite widespread use of the term “natural” in personal care products, the United States Food and Drug Administration has not officially defined the term and has not released any guidelines on its use.  The ISO 16128 standard, however, includes technical definitions and criteria for the terms “natural” and “organic”.

ISO 16128 has been developed specifically for the cosmetics sector.  It applies to cosmetic ingredients and finished cosmetic products and does not require any certification.  ISO 16128 provides guidelines to help cosmetic suppliers and manufacturers define a natural or organic ingredient.  The standard consists of two parts:

• The first part of the standard (ISO 16128-1) was published in February 2016 and defines the categories of cosmetics ingredients (natural ingredients, derived natural ingredients, organic ingredients, and derived organic ingredients)
• The second part of the standard (ISO 16128-2) was published in September 2017 and provides guidance to calculate the naturality index of the cosmetics ingredient categories

ISO 16128 is not legally binding.  Instead, it can be thought of as a way for cosmetic manufacturers to follow good industry practices while demonstrating due diligence.  In addition, as mentioned above, applying the ISO 16128 standard does not require certification, unlike private labels.  There is no logo to affix on the finished product; however, it is possible to include the natural or organic content on the product packaging.

How can Intertek help?

To support raw material suppliers and Responsible Persons (RPs) in the cosmetics industry, our team of experts offers the following solutions:

• Calculations of the natural and organic indexes/contents of ingredients and raw materials
• Calculations of the naturalness percentage of cosmetics formulas by analyzing the formula content and verifying that they fully meet the ISO 16128 guidelines
• Consulting solutions and/or training to help determine the natural and natural origin indexes of cosmetics ingredients  
• Collection of the necessary information from suppliers and direct communication with suppliers to manage projects (reminders, follow-ups, etc.)

Through our global network of experts in more than 100 countries, Intertek helps cosmetic companies to understand naturalness concerns.  With extensive experience in the cosmetics industry, Intertek is a partner of choice for your naturalness index calculations and can provide technical support to your teams, helping you to understand the complexity of the ISO 16128 standard.