- Acronym: NATRUE
- Date first offered: 1 October 2013
Scheme owner:
NATRUE AISBL (an international non-profit association) based in Brussels is The International Natural and Organic Cosmetics Association, whose objective is to ensure the availability of quality natural and organic cosmetic products for consumers worldwide. NATRUE has identified two main areas of activity to reach this objective:
- To ensure the availability of premium raw materials through appropriate ingredient regulation
- In the absence of a regulatory definition for natural and organic cosmetics to provide strict international criteria (the NATRUE Label)
NATRUE is a membership based organisation open to any with interest in this field according to NATRUE Statutes
Initially NATRUE labelled products were certified by certification bodies approved by NATRUE. From October 2013, NATRUE have launched a formal and independent accreditation scheme to provide even greater assurance to the NATRUE label. More information on NATRUE is available on the NATRUE website.
The NATRUE Accreditation programme is an accreditation programme for which IOAS has been approved as an accreditor since 2013 under agreement with NATRUE.
Scheme requirements:
The NATRUE Accreditation programme is open to any certification body which meets the requirements of the programme and which has first applied to and been accepted by the scheme owner. Accredited certifiers sign a contract with NATRUE (Commitment Declaration) and agree with all the specified provisions. Forms for application and the ‘Commitment Declaration’ can be downloaded for free from the NATRUE web site certifier application page.
As defined in the latest version of the NATRUE Requirements the NATRUE scheme recognises the following sectors of activity:
- Certification of finished cosmetic products
- Approval of formula
- Certification of raw materials
- Approval of raw materials
The requirements against which a certification body is assessed are the ‘NATRUE Requirements for Certification Bodies’ which can be downloaded from the manufacturers document section of the NATRUE web site.
The certifier is obliged to apply the ‘NATRUE Label: requirements to be met by natural and organic cosmetics’ which are also available on the NATRUE website.
Application:
First steps in accreditation are as follows:
Complete the NATRUE application form and sign the NATRUE contract.
- Complete the standard IOAS application form
The IOAS NATRUE Operating Manual provides full guidance on implementation of this scheme.
Fees for IOAS accreditation against the NATRUE scheme are presented in the standard IOAS fee schedule.
All standards and certification requirements are available on NATRUE’s website.
