The Natural Products Association (NPA), Washington, D.C., and NaTrue, the International Natural and Organic Cosmetics Association, Brussels, Belgium, will work toward establishing a mutual recognition agreement.

Both organizations have created high-level standards for natural personal care. Once in place, the agreement would mean products complying with either the NPA or NaTrue standard would be recognized by each body as compliant with their harmonized standards.

“On a practical level, products that meet the NPA standard will not need to repeat the full certification process for the NaTrue label, and vice versa,” said Daniel Fabricant, PhD, NPA’s vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs. “Our goal has always been to protect the integrity of the word ‘natural’ when it comes to personal care. This agreement with NaTrue will help consumers at the point of sale in identifying a wider array of truly natural cosmetics.”

“Both associations are based on similar values and this is reflected in the fact that both standards have strict criteria that leave no room for black holes,” said Julie Tyrrell, NaTrue general secretary. “It is only logical that comparable standards cooperate instead of competing against each other. With the mutual recognition we offer label users easy access to the most important markets worldwide. This is what consumers expect.”

The NPA standard was launched in May 2008 and more than 340 products and ingredients have been certified to date. The NaTrue standard was launched in September 2008 with more than 390 products certified, including natural, made with organic and organic products, and is now open to raw material certification. Several hundred other products are in the process of being certified by both trade associations.

Both parties hope to have the formal agreement in effect by summer 2010.