USDA Organic Certification?
Posted by Deb Oxley on Jul 9th 2015
Q) Why don't your products carry the USDA Organic Seal?
A) While the USDA certification program is certainly a step in the right
direction when it comes to manufacturer accountability (and overcoming
the '
green-washing' marketing that is so rampant today), at Teva Skin
Science, we find it does not currently fit with our production model
standards, due to it's inherent limitations.
The first of these is that all 95% (soon to be 93%) of the ingredients
in a USDA certified product must fit the USDA criteria which includes
being grown in the USA. The unspoken problem or loophole in that is the
fact that 5-7% of the total ingredients can be
absolutely anything!!, and that product can still qualify under current guidelines. We don't find that acceptable. We have zero tolerance for anything but pure, naturally derived ingredients.
As well, many of our ingredients, being authentic ayurvedic recipe
components, simply are not grown as crops in the United States (and do not grow here naturally either) and
therefore can't meet the 'organically grown in the USA' requirement. These authentic ingredients are
both fair-trade & sustainably wild-harvested and
gathered from remote regions all over the globe. We source our
ingredients from the
highest-quality most reputable organic brokers world-wide, who ensure
these standards, and also that no ingredient is ever tested on animals.
BOTTOM LINE: Every single ingredient in the Teva Skin Science line is either USDA certified,
or wild-harvested and guaranteed to be 100% synthetic chemical and harmful additives free.