Slows you downUnited StatesBeauty & personal care

“Organic” on a cosmetic is a USDA word, not FDA’s

FDA states that “organic” is not defined in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, or the regulations FDA enforces under them, and that the definition and certification sit with the USDA National Organic Program instead.

An organic claim on a cosmetic is answerable to a different agency from the rest of the label, so the brand that assumes one regulator covers the whole bottle is unrepresented on the half that carries the price premium.

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Verified August 5, 2026Rechecked every 365 days, next by August 5, 2027.

Constraint

Held since August 5, 2026A rule, law or policy that limits what you may do or say. The earliest date we are willing to say this held. It may well have been true before that; we do not backdate a record past the evidence we have read. Supported, version 1.

This entry is wrong if

FDA defines “organic” for cosmetics under the FD&C Act or the FPLA, or states that it enforces the term directly.

Written before the record was published, not after. If you can show this, send it to hello@tryorbt.com and the correction goes on the record with the entry.

Evidence

Tier Aregulation
U.S. Food and Drug Administration: “Organic” Cosmetics
The term “organic” is not defined in either of these laws or the regulations that FDA enforces under their authority.
Read 2026-08-05 · Public domain · page hash 7f09830f1d7e

History

v1createdAugust 5, 2026
Initial entry from primary regulator text, read 2026-08-04.

Append-only. Nothing in this list is edited or removed once written, including the entries that record our own mistakes. Every change to every record is on the corrections page, and the same log is in entries.json under revisions.

labelling
marketing-claims
organic
usda
jurisdiction
beauty

Cite this entry

““Organic” on a cosmetic is a USDA word, not FDA’s”, The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0, entry omr:us:organic-is-a-usda-word-not-an-fda-one, retrieved September 9, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/us--organic-is-a-usda-word-not-an-fda-one. Dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22679129

Orbt, "“Organic” on a cosmetic is a USDA word, not FDA’s," Orbt Market Index, entry omr:us:organic-is-a-usda-word-not-an-fda-one, verified August 5, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/us--organic-is-a-usda-word-not-an-fda-one.

@misc{orbt-us-organic-is-a-usda-word-not-an-fda-one,
  title        = {“Organic” on a cosmetic is a USDA word, not FDA’s},
  author       = {{Orbt}},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22679129},
  note         = {The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0 (dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22679129), entry omr:us:organic-is-a-usda-word-not-an-fda-one. Verified 2026-08-05},
  howpublished = {\url{https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/us--organic-is-a-usda-word-not-an-fda-one}},
  license      = {Orbt Index Public Licence. Free to quote and cite; not to redistribute}
}

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Evidence

History

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