Whole Foods Market(R) Helps Shoppers Choose Personal Care Products with Confidence and Good Conscience

AUSTIN, Texas, April 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of its "Be Good to Your Whole Body" campaign in its Whole Body™ departments, Whole Foods Market focuses on educating consumers on its Premium Body Care standards for the month of April.

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For more than four years, Whole Foods Market's quality standards team has been committed to examining each and every personal care ingredient in products sold nationally in Whole Body. Using the latest scientific research and data, they evaluate each ingredient in four key areas – quality, environmental impact, results and safety. Currently, Premium Body Care lists more than 300 ingredients as unacceptable.

"Our goal two years ago was to provide an easier way for customers to cut through the confusion when looking for natural personal care products," said Jody Villecco, Whole Foods Market's quality standards coordinator. "In the process, Premium Body Care has pushed companies to examine the ingredients in their products and reformulate to meet our Quality Standards. As a result, we've seen an overall shift in the industry for safer, higher quality natural body care products and the availability of natural-based ingredients has expanded significantly."

In-store lectures and podcasts by Whole Body experts will help educate shoppers on Whole Foods Market's Premium Body Care standard. Topics include what to look for on labeling when selecting safer, more natural alternatives, how the Premium Body Care standard defines "natural" for personal care and how this standard challenges product suppliers to reformulate their products and the overall impact this has on the natural body care industry.

Several resources are available online www.wholefoodsmarket.com, including a three-part audio podcast series on Whole Story. The first podcast with Whole Foods Market's Lecia Rand, category manager, discusses the challenges of developing affordable natural body care products that meet Premium Body Care standards. A second podcast with Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty a Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, explores the impact of Premium Body Care on the natural products industry and why these standards are so valuable. The third part of the series, with Prairie Rose Hyde from Alaffia, takes a look into how these standards have impacted suppliers and therefore the natural body care industry as a whole.

About Whole Foods Market®

Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market (wholefoodsmarket.com, NASDAQ: WFMI), is the leading natural and organic food retailer. As America's first national certified organic grocer, Whole Foods Market was named "America's Healthiest Grocery Store" by Health magazine. The company's motto, "Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet"™ captures its mission to ensure customer satisfaction and health, Team Member excellence and happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and environmental improvement. Thanks to the company's more than 53,000 Team Members, Whole Foods Market has been ranked as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America by FORTUNE magazine for 13 consecutive years. In fiscal year 2009, the company had sales of $8 billion and currently has more than 280 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

SOURCE Whole Foods Market