Published: August 3, 2020
Q. We are manufacturing an organic product which is difficult to remove. We were told to seek Alconox Inc.’s assistance. Are your products organic? What are the active ingredients?
A. Alconox Inc. detergents are suitable for cleaning applications in organic manufacturing including food, cosmetics, edible medical cannabis and others related applications when rinsed with potable water.
The FDA does not regulate the term ‘organic’ in cosmetic manufacturing, and refers to The United States Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program (NOP) to govern the use of the word organic in cosmetics. The USDA NOP aims to prevent commingling of organic and non-organic products and prohibit certain chemical’s use as covered in USDA organic regulations – 7 CFR 205.272. The NOP allows the use of detergents that are not organic provided they are disclosed, precisely because of the potable rinse step. This rinse step ensures that no commingling can exist. And Alconox Inc. provides detergents specifically designed to be very free-rinsing.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Canadian Organic Regime (COR) allows the use of biodegradable detergents whose biodegradation products are not more harmful than the original compounds for equipment cleaning. In order to use these detergents on food contact surfaces, a potable water rinse is already a mandatory step. No additional step is required for use of Alconox Inc. detergents to be used for organic food contact surface cleaning as part of an organic program in Canada.
Hence, these products can be used for organic manufacturing of your product, whether in US or Canada.
Per the USDA guidance document referred to above, active ingredients are required to be displayed on the labels of sanitizing disinfectants and must be recorded and made sure that they are on the approved list of active ingredients to qualify for use in the USDA NOP. This is because sanitizers may not be rinsed and may have direct food contact with the disinfected surfaces where the disinfectant is used. Sanitizing cleaners are required to be rinsed with potable water, and as such, essentially only have indirect food contact with such tiny trace amounts as may be left after rinsing. For this reason, it is not required to label, track and check active ingredients in sanitizing cleaners used in the USDA National Organic Program (NOP). Alconox Inc. detergents are sanitizing cleaners that do not have to label or have their active ingredients tracked or checked.
To request an Alconox Inc. detergent for free, please complete the questionnaire at Get Sample. For more information about any one of our Alconox Inc. detergents, consult the technical bulletin for each product. Or click here to access each of our detergent’s Safety Data Sheets.
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