What we put on and in our bodies through vitamins, supplements and body care products is at least as important as the food we eat. Good Eggs is committed to carrying an assortment that reflects the needs of the families we serve and comes from producers who share our mission. Here’s what we consider when stocking the Marketplace with Health & Body Care items (HBC)
As with the rest of the items you will find at Good Eggs, in the HBC department, you will find a preference for Organic, NGMO, and local brands that Good Eggs has cultivated a relationship with. Good Eggs is constantly looking for producers who source via fair trade, direct trade, or have extensive knowledge of their suppliers’ sourcing practices and are able to disclose country of origin for internationally sourced major & minor, but not micro (less than 2% of total) ingredients. If a producer does not meet these standards, we may still add the product for producers who would be considered craft or artisanal in size or are new, emerging or local to the intended marketplace, but with a timeline and goal of meeting our standards (timeline not to exceed 1 year)
A great deal of the work surrounding HBC standards revolves around specific ingredients. There is no mandatory government standard regulating organic for health and body care items, but here are some guidelines the USDA & Good Eggs uses
- If a cosmetic, body care product, or personal care product contains or is made up of agricultural ingredients, and can meet the USDA/NOP organic production, handling, processing and labeling standards, it may be eligible to be certified under the NOP regulations
- The operations which produce the organic agricultural ingredients, the handlers of these agricultural ingredients, and the manufacturer of the final product must all be certified by a USDA-accredited organic certifying agent
- Once certified, cosmetics, personal care products, and body care products are eligible for the same 4 organic labeling categories as all other agricultural products, based on their organic content and other factors
- More information can be found here
In general, as in food you will not find
- Synthetic fragrances; Good Eggs screens to ensure any fragrances are derived from natural ingredients and essential oils not in laboratories
- Synthetic colors; as with food no FD&C or numbered colors are allowed
- Preservatives; are allowable in certain products like liquid and dehydrated laundry products. Some preservatives we don't allow in food like Potassium Sorbate, may be allowable in non-ingestible home care products as a mildewicide so long as they are not ingested or applied directly to the body
- Artificial sweeteners; Aspartame (Equal and NutraSweet), Sucralose (SPlenda) & Saccharin ( Sweet ‘N Low)
- Please see the entire list of ingredients Here