OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100
OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100
A chemical safety certificate, not an environmental one — a virgin fossil-based PVC sheet can hold a valid one. Because certification is modular, check whether the certificate covers the finished article you are buying or only a yarn, trim or component of it.
What it covers
Laboratory testing against a list of over 1,000 harmful substances, graded into four product classes by how much skin contact the item has — Product Class 1 (babies and children up to 3 years) is the strictest. Certification is modular: yarn, fabric, trims and accessories can each be certified at their own processing stage, and a finished article built entirely from already-certified components can be certified without being tested again as a finished article. An on-site company audit is also part of the process (at first certification, then every three years), and certificates are valid for one year. Because it is modular, always check whether the certificate a supplier shows you covers the finished article you are buying or only one component of it.
What it does not cover
Says nothing about bio-based content, organic origin, emissions or overall sustainability. A fully fossil-based virgin PVC sheet can hold a valid STANDARD 100 certificate. Recycled content is the one partial exception: it is an optional add-on, so a plain certificate proves nothing about recycled material — but if “recycled” appears in the article scope, OEKO-TEX requires at least 20% of the main textile material to be recycled, information on the material source and a proven quality management system, with virgin material carried on a separate certificate. OEKO-TEX itself notes there is no chemical test to determine whether material is recycled, so for a traceable, transaction-certified recycled percentage you still need GRS or RCS. This is the most frequently misread certificate in the industry — it is fundamentally a chemical safety certificate, not an environmental one.
Scope and exclusions are recorded from the issuing body’s own published documentation. A certificate covers what its scope statement says and nothing beyond it.