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USDA Unveils First BioBased Products

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has unveiled the first 60 products to earn its new "Certified BioBased" label, which indicates that a product or its packaging was made from renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has unveiled the first 60 products to earn its new "Certified BioBased" label, which indicates that a product or its packaging was made from renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials.

The USDA announced the new voluntary program — a subset of the agency's BioPreferred program — in January, and since then, 100 companies have submitted applications for 400 products.

"We're proud to achieve this important distinction under USDA's BioPreferred program as it will bring greater clarity to the marketplace and spur more leading product manufacturers and consumers to embrace materials that reduce adverse environmental impacts," said James Sanfilippo, president and chief executive officer of Clear Lam Packaging, which earned the label for its Ingeo PLA bioplastic thermoformed produce containers.

"Because many biobased packages look the same as petroleum-based products, the Biobased Product Label lets everyone know they can trust manufacturer's biobased claims as they've been verified through a reliable, rigorous third-party certification process."