Hain Celestial Announces Transition to the NSF/ANSI 305 Standard for Personal Care Products Containing Organic Ingredients

MELVILLE, N.Y., July 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: HAIN), a leading natural and organic products company providing consumers with A Healthy Way of Life™, is committed to creating personal care products that fulfill consumers' demand for performance, safety, purity and integrity.

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Since the United States Department of Agriculture ("USDA") has not created specific organic standards for formulating and labeling personal care products that contain organic ingredients in contrast to organic foods and beverages, two years ago Hain Celestial began a dramatic program of reformulation and relabeling to adhere to the stringent NSF/ANSI 305 standard, the American National Standard for personal care products containing organic ingredients.

The NSF/ANSI 305 Standard for Personal Care Products Containing Organic Ingredients specifies the materials, processes, production criteria and conditions that must be met in order to make organic label and marketing claims. Under this standard, all personal care products with "organic" claims (other than ingredient list) must contain a minimum organic content of 70% (070) and be formulated without any ingredient or process disallowed by the NSF.

"We continually review our personal care product formulations and standards," said Irwin D. Simon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hain Celestial. "To meet the expectations of our loyal consumers, we are proud to announce that we have adopted the NSF/ANSI 305 'made with organic' standard across our Avalon Organics® and Earth's Best Organic® personal care brands. We are currently in the process of certification and labeling transition. These changes affect all production as of November, 2011."      

So the Company's natural brands may also become compliant to the standard, the JASON®, Zia® natural skincare, and Alba Botanica® brands have all updated their packaging to identify as organic only specific ingredients on products' ingredient lists. These changes have affected all production as of June, 2011.

"Hain Celestial maintains the highest standards for safety and quality," said Emma Froelich-Shea, Vice President of Marketing, Personal Care. All of the certified organic ingredients in the Company's products meet all federal requirements pursuant to the USDA's National Organic Program.  They are certified organic by organizations including Quality Assurance International (QAI), Oregon Tilth, EcoCert and many other respected third-party organic certification agencies.

About The Hain Celestial Group

The Hain Celestial Group (NASDAQ: HAIN), headquartered in Melville, NY, is a leading natural and organic products company in North America and Europe. Hain Celestial participates in many natural categories with well-known brands that include Celestial Seasonings®, Earth's Best®, Terra®, Garden of Eatin'®, Sensible Portions®, Health Valley®, Arrowhead Mills®, MaraNatha®, SunSpire®, DeBoles®, Gluten Free Café™, Hain Pure Foods®, Hollywood®, Spectrum Naturals®, Spectrum Essentials®, Walnut Acres Organic®, Imagine®, Almond Dream®, Rice Dream®, Soy Dream®, WestSoy®, The Greek Gods®, Ethnic Gourmet®, Yves Veggie Cuisine®, Granose®, Realeat®, Linda McCartney®, Daily Bread™, Lima®, Danival®, GG UniqueFiber™, Grains Noirs®, Natumi®, JASON®, Zia® Natural Skincare, Avalon Organics®, Alba Botanica®, Queen Helene®, Earth's Best TenderCare® and Martha Stewart Clean™.  Hain Celestial has been providing "A Healthy Way of Life™" since 1993.  For more information, visit www.hain-celestial.com.

SOURCE The Hain Celestial Group, Inc.