Hot Mama Sued Over Organic Labeling

Jessica Alba's Honest Company Sued Over Organic Infant Formula

Jessica Alba's The Honest Company has been hit with another lawsuit that criticizes the brand's claims.

The nonprofit, politically active group Organic Consumers Association filed a lawsuit earlier this month with the Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that Honest violates the Organic Food Production Act of 1990 and the California Organic Products Act of 2003 by claiming its Premium Infant Formula is organic.

"The Honest Co. is falsely representing its Premium Infant Formula as 'organic' even though this product contains 11 synthetic substances prohibited under federal law in organic products," Katherine Paul, associate director of the Organic Consumers Association, told ABC News. "This is unacceptable."

As a retired scientist, I insist on the correct usage of the word "organic", which is to say compound which contain carbon in bonded to other carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen or sulfur. Which is not to say that all organic compounds are great. Lots of them are poisonous or carcinogenic. Even many of the ones, that are "all natural." Botulinum toxin is a perfect example of an organic compound.

The California Organic Products Act points to a list of certain nonagricultural substances that can be included in products sold as organic, as adopted by the United States Secretary of Agriculture in Section 6517 of the U.S. Code based on a proposed list from the National Organic Standards Board. But the lawsuit alleges 11 ingredients in Honest's Premium Infant Formula aren't included on that national list.

Previous lawsuits have been filed against Honest over its sunscreen and cleaning products. The company said in response to the lawsuits at the time that the allegations of both lawsuits were "without merit."

As noted by Instapundit "To be fair, the whole organic thing is basically a fraud anyway."

Among the ingredients the infant formula lawsuit lists is taurine, which the National Organic Standards Board declined to add to the national list in July 2012. At the time, the synthetic form was petitioned for use in infant formula "because insufficient taurine could result in subpar fat digestion and absorption in infants." The board explained when it chose not to recommend taurine to the list, "Taurine can be made or extracted from non-synthetic sources, although apparently available only in small amounts at this time. Although essential for cats and thus added to cat pet food, taurine is considered a non-essential human dietary supplement."

The world cannot discriminate between "synthetic" and natural, biologically synthesized taurine, which is a very important molecule

Paul said she wants Honest to remove the word "organic" from the infant formula label or remove the ingredients.

A statement from The Honest Company read, "Our Organic Infant Formula is cleared by the Food and Drug Administration and meets all safety and nutritional standards. It is also certified USDA Organic by an independent third party, in strict accordance with the National Organic Program. We are confident this lawsuit will be dismissed."

As used by the nutrition fascists, and government regulators, "organic" means food we think was prepared in ways we prefer, and has approximately the same, or even less validity than kosher and halal designations.

Jessica Alba's Honest Company fires back against baby formula lawsuit

"[The Infant Formula is] certified organic and contains at least 95% organic ingredients as required by USDA. Any ingredients, including the 11 ingredients alleged in the suit as nonorganic, are ingredients that occur naturally in breast milk, are important for infant growth and development, and are all either permitted or required by the FDA to be present in infant formula," the company said.

I would be just as happy if the whole concept of "organic" foods was banned, and products were judged strictly on objective safety.

The mother of all babe lists, Wombat-socho's "Rule 5 Sunday: May Flowers"  is up at The Other McCain.