This Standard has been developed at the European and international level by BDIH (Germany), COSMEBIO & ECOCERT (France), ICEA (Italy) and SOIL ASSOCIATION (UK) who are the founders of the COSMOS-standard AISBL (an international non-profit association registered in Belgium) in order to define common requirements and definitions for organic and/or natural cosmetics.
COSMOS-Standard AISBL continually reviews the criteria that companies must meet to ensure their products are genuine organic or natural cosmetics produced to the highest feasible sustainability practices.
In this latest version, Version 4, COSMOS-Standard AISBL have strengthened criteria and added new ones across five key priorities. The changes that have been implemented are the result of a far-reaching internal review by COSMOS working groups, including external expert input and subject-specific surveys among companies with COSMOS certified product and ingredients. In addition, a public consultation process took place in 2021 to ensure that feedback was incorporated from the wider COSMOS network.
The key priorities under review in V4.0 were:
- Palm oil and its derivatives
- Mineral and mineral original ingredients
- Ingredients and processes
- List of organic physically-processed agro-ingredients (PPAI)
- Sustainable packaging
Source: www.cosmos-standard.org
