Industry Certifications
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is a division of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, and is responsible for regulating therapeutic goods including medicines.
Essentially, any product for which therapeutic claims are made must be listed, registered or included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) before it can be supplied in Australia.
The TGA evaluates therapeutic goods before they are marketed and monitors products once they are on the market. The TGA also regulates manufacturers of therapeutic goods to ensure they meet acceptable standards of manufacturing quality. It has a team of manufacturing inspectors that audit manufacturing facilities around the world to ensure products supplied in Australia are of high quality.
The TGA works with consumers, health professionals, industry and its international counterparts in order to effectively regulate increasingly complex products resulting from rapid scientific developments.
Natural and Organic Certifications
COSMOS ORGANIC & NATURAL
This is the international standard for organic and natural cosmetics. It was founded in 2010 it is now a global certifier.
It was the result of 5 leading European certification bodies working together to develop a worldwide cosmetics certification scheme.
ACO CERTIFIED ORGANIC
This is the Australian independent certifier which is made up of 95% certified organic ingredients and 5% as qualifying as natural. Australian Certified Organic also certifies products on behalf of COSMOS, so you can see both labels appearing on the same product. It requires that products and ingredients are grown and processed without the use of synthetic chemicals, fertilisers or GMOs. requirements.
CRUELTY FREE
To make sure we look after the environment and all its creatures, Oil Garden has also been accredited with Choose Cruelty Free. Hence you will see the bunny logo on our products.
This emblem avows that all our products have not been tested on animals.
Industry Terms to Watch Out For
Therapeutic Grade
CPTG “CERTIFIED PURE THERAPEUTIC GRADE” classification is a logo registered trademark and NOT a recognised standard of assessment to authenticate the quality of essential oils in the aromatherapy industry either nationally or internationally. This trademark can provide nothing more than the manufacturer’s guarantee of quality as the legitimacy of the term is judged by the company itself.
Food Grade
A food grade essential oil does NOT imply that it is therefore safe to ingest or edible. A company promoting ingestion as a method of use does so at the risk of its own manufacturing contracts and customers.
Although our oils all qualify for food grade standards as set out by the Hazards Analysis Critical Control Points HACCP, we do not recommend our oils for food preparation nor as dietary supplements as we are not purveyors of fine food. In Australia, the aromatherapy category is regarded as a topical and inhalation therapy and only registered clinicians are qualified to prescribe ingestion.
Natural & Organic Product Name
Today, extra care needs to be taken when first presented with claims of natural and organic on packaging. Self-regulated companies are free to make branding label claims to persuade the buyer. This can simply be a trademarked name rather than an indication of purity.