Oeko-Tex standard 100: Everything about it
The making of textiles from raw materials is an intricate process and it involves many chemicals to bring about the final product. Textiles need to be tested so that they don't contain particles that are harmful to humans.
What is Oeko-Tex?
Oeko-Tex is an organization that verifies the human-ecological safety of textile and leather products in all stages of production. Textile products along with intermediate materials at all levels of production can be subject to this independent certification system. Even products that come into indirect skin contact like coats, jackets, buttons, zippers, etc can also be certified by Oeko-Tex. The more fabric comes to human contact, the stricter the human-ecological requirements.
What is the Oeko-Tex standard 100?
Being introduced in 1992, The Standard 100 by Oeko-Tex is a label for textile products affirming that they have undergone laboratory testing for a wide array of harmful particles. Textiles can only be certified by Oeko-Tex if all the used elements maintain the required criteria.
What is the objective of the oeko tex standard 100?
The objective of Oeko-Tex is to construct a standardized quality assurance system for retailers and manufacturers all over the world; compensating for regionally dissimilar standards of evaluation. Countrywise different standards of evaluation make it hard to ascertain quality control and the consumers are more likely to come into contact with deleterious chemical components.
Natural fabrics vs. Synthetic fabrics
For whom is this standard?
The intended use of a textile article varies the requirements of Oeko-Tex testing for harmful substances. Raw and dyed finished yarns, finished fabrics and knits, all sorts of clothing, bed linen, home, and household textiles, textile toys, terry cloth items, etc. are some examples of items eligible for certification.
Oeko-Tex classifies all the eligible textile products into four categories:
- Product class I- items for babies and infants
- Product class II- items with prolonged long-area direct skin contact
- Product class III- Textiles with or without little skin contact
- Product class IV- Furnishing materials for decorations.
All products that fall in these categories are tested for their attributes of several hundred individual substances from 17 groups of chemicals. The standard also takes into account numerous substances known to be harmful but not yet subject to any regulation. Product class, I go through an additional test for saliva resistance.
What are the benefits of obtaining this standard?
To certify a textile by Oeko-Tex, manufacturers have to supply samples of all the ingredients starting from sewing threads to studs or prints for laboratory analysis. Oeko-Tex carries out unannounced on-site visits at the textile production facilities to ensure honesty and continue compliance with the requirements. A consumer survey by BBE Retail Experts in 2008 found an average recognition of 42% across seven European countries for the Oeko-Tex label. Needless to say, with a Standard 100 certification, your industry can earn the trust of customers worldwide because of its credibility and acceptance and it can certainly benefit your profits. An Oeko-Tex certification is valid for a year. However, it can be renewed for another year if continuous safety is ensured throughout the whole textile production chain.
Levantex promises to bring you the best Oeko-Tex products in the market. If a textile product has an Oeko-Tex label on it, it means that it is free of harmful substances and it has gone through rigorous tests conducted in independent Oeko-Tex Institutes. If you have doubts about it, you can check the validity of the certification using the number on the label anytime. At present, Oeko-Tex has 18 neutral test and research institutes in Europe and Japan with contact offices in over seventy countries around the globe.
