Founder Members of NATRUE were originally members of the German Natural Cosmetics Association to which their products were certified. However, they realised that representation at an international level was missing. The presence of many different natural and organic national labels was a real problem which was not only confusing for consumers but also challenging for producers to formulate products with different requirements to comply to all these standards. It became urgent to address the lack of regulation within the sector, as well as the short comings of the existing national standards which were not in line with consumers’ and producers’ expectations and needs. Consequently, NATRUE Founder Members ultimately decided to launch their own international initiative taking account of consumers’ and manufacturers’ expectations and needs. This resulted in the creation of the NATRUE Label in 2008.
When the NATRUE Label appears on a package, you can be sure that the product it contains is not only compliant with a strict standard but also that a reliable certification process has been carried out by independent certification bodies which are themselves subjected to a rigorous accreditation process. This ensures that each and every NATRUE certified product provides consumers with several guarantees:
NATRUE defines its Label Criteria through an independent Scientific Committee – which ingredients are or are not accepted, minimum and maximum thresholds guaranteeing maximum naturalness and minimum derived natural ingredients are set
The verification of whether the products comply with the NATRUE Criteria or not by the NATRUE Approved Certifiers – a two-phase process – a formulation and ingredients audit followed by an on-site production inspection. Re-certification takes place every two years.
