ngosangns Knowledge Base

OEKO-TEX

#life#clothing

Updated: 2026-11-05

Source

OEKO-TEX is a family of textile and leather labels from a Zurich association of independent test institutes. Read the name on the hangtag before you treat it as a safety, organic, or factory claim. A STANDARD 100 mark and a MADE IN GREEN mark answer different questions. Checked against the association's own pages on 5 November 2026. The live certificate counters on those pages did not render in the fetch, so this note does not quote a current total.

The same street address appears on the documents, with more than one legal name. The STANDARD 100 standard, edition 01.2026, dated 3 March 2026, names OEKO-TEX Service GmbH at Gutenbergstrasse 1, CH-8002 Zurich. The ECO PASSPORT standard, edition 03.2026, names OEKO-TEX AG at that address. Press lines say OEKO-TEX Association, same address. This note does not pick which entity owns the mark.

Who issues the labels

The association was founded in March 1992 by the Hohenstein Research Institute and the Austrian Textile Research Institute, OETI. Testex joined later. STANDARD 100 was shown in public at the Interstoff fair in April 1992. The story page and the 2024/2025 annual report both say the association has 17 independent textile and leather testing institutes. That annual report says more than 57,000 certificates and labels were issued in the year it covers. That is a flow for one year, not a count of labels still valid.

Several product pages say a network of over 35,000 certified companies. Limit values are reviewed at least once a year. The engagement page says control testing pulls goods again from shops, audits, or later certifications. It states about 25 percent of STANDARD 100 certificates, LEATHER STANDARD certificates, and MADE IN GREEN labels, about 15 percent of ECO PASSPORT certificates, and 10 percent of ORGANIC COTTON certificates. Those shares are the page's own statement.

What each label covers

The portfolio page lists seven current standards. DETOX TO ZERO still has its own page under STeP. It is a wet-process tool tied to the Greenpeace Detox campaign of 2011, not a hangtag you shop by.

Label What a pass covers Term on the product page
STANDARD 100 A textile article tested against harmful-substance limits 1 year
LEATHER STANDARD Leather, from semi-finished hide to a finished article, on the same kind of test 1 year
ORGANIC COTTON Cotton tracked from an organic farm standard through to the product, plus GMO and harmful-substance tests 1 year
ECO PASSPORT A chemical, colourant, or auxiliary used to make textile or leather 1 year
STeP A production facility, including industrial laundries 3 years
MADE IN GREEN A traceable product label that stacks a product test with STeP at the making-up site Label, not a one-year product certificate in the steps above
RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS A company's due-diligence process for human rights and the environment Company process. A self-assessment alone may not be used in external communication

STeP scores a facility in six modules. They are chemical management, environmental performance, environmental management, social responsibility, quality management, and health and safety. The certificate runs three years. The engagement page says each STeP facility also submits to a compliance audit one and a half years after the certificate is issued. STeP can recognise other schemes such as BSCI, Fair Wear Foundation, SA8000, ISO 14001, and ISO 9001. A STeP certificate is what lets a maker apply for MADE IN GREEN. The engagement page says STeP facilities are in 56 countries, including Bangladesh, India, and Turkey, and that STeP refers to ILO core conventions on child labour, discrimination, wages, and working hours.

MADE IN GREEN started in 2015. The product page requires four things. The article is certified to STANDARD 100, ORGANIC COTTON, or LEATHER STANDARD. Every making-up facility holds STeP. A component that is at least 5 percent of the product weight comes from a STeP wet or chemical facility. For a finished product, the making-up site plus at least three components are named on the OEKO-TEX Connect platform. The label carries a product ID or QR code. Label Check is where that ID shows facilities and countries. The German story page says more than 41,000 MADE IN GREEN labels had been issued since 2015. The 2024/2025 annual report separately says over 18,000 labelled products expose supply-chain data. Those two counts are not the same thing.

ORGANIC COTTON launched in April 2023. Cultivation has to be shown with a standard in the IFOAM Organics International family. The page describes two products. ORGANIC COTTON is for materials and goods of 100 percent organic cotton. ORGANIC COTTON Blended is for goods with at least 70 percent organic cotton. The same page says the article cannot contain over 5 percent conventional cotton. Read the 70 percent as the organic-cotton share of the product, and the 5 percent as a cap on conventional cotton mixed into the cotton. The GMO test is meant to separate contamination from deliberate mixing. Chain of custody uses a token the page calls fibercoin.

ECO PASSPORT is a pre-certification for STeP, STANDARD 100, ORGANIC COTTON, and LEATHER STANDARD. The product page maps three stages onto ZDHC levels. CAS screening plus a self-assessment is ZDHC Level 1. Adding analytical verification and an on-site visit is Level 2. Adding a chemical hazard assessment is Level 3. A May 2026 press note, for the tenth year of ECO PASSPORT, reports over 65,000 certified products, 2,125 certificates, and 1,400 customers in more than 50 countries. That snapshot is the press note, not a recount on 5 November 2026.

RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS evaluates a company, from retailer to raw-material producer. The elements are business policy, risk analysis, actions, monitoring, communication, and a complaint mechanism. An optional seventh module covers climate strategy. The self-assessment is a standalone tool and the page forbids external communication from that step alone. External communication starts after the audited certificate.

How to read STANDARD 100

The STANDARD 100 page calls it a label for textiles tested for harmful substances, from yarn to a finished product. The applicant chooses the product class and one of two annexes. The live page, read on 5 November 2026, defines four classes. Class 1 is babies and children up to 3 years, with the strictest limits. The page's example is diapers. Class 2 has direct skin contact, with bed linen as the example. Class 3 has no direct skin contact, with jackets as the example. Class 4 is home and decoration textiles, with curtains as the example. The standard text uses Roman numerals for the same four classes and defines class II and class III by how much of the surface touches skin.

Edition 01.2026 of the standard splits the test catalogue in two. Annex 4 is the set of limits aimed at the person wearing or using the article. Annex 6 keeps those limits and adds further, often stricter, limits for chemicals that may matter in production even when they have no direct health effect. The certificate number on the mark is how you tell which annex was used. The site says testing follows REACH Annexes XVII and XIV, the US CPSIA, and textile-relevant entries on the ECHA SVHC candidate list. The same page says each component, including thread, buttons, and other accessories, is tested against a list of over 1,000 harmful substances. This note did not count that list in the RSL file.

The STANDARD 100 page also says the certified article is harmless to human health. That is the association's summary of a pass against its limit values. A pass is that comparison for the article named on the certificate. Edition 01.2026 says the mark is not a quality label. It covers the textile in the state it was produced. It is silent on fitness for use, behaviour in cleaning, flammability, construction, and any SVHC that Annex 4 and Annex 6 do not list. The certificate runs one year.

The engagement page says an on-site visit for a company with STANDARD 100 or LEATHER STANDARD articles happens at least once every three years. ORGANIC COTTON visits are yearly. ECO PASSPORT on-site visits are optional and, when used, once every three years for chemical producers. The STANDARD 100 standard adds two rules. The first certification needs an on-site visit, before the certificate or soon after. A facility that already holds STeP does not need that STANDARD 100 visit. The institute may also arrive unannounced, and refusing entry withdraws the certificate.

How to check a number

Use Label Check. Type the label number. The page says numbers are case sensitive. A QR code on the label is the other path. If the lookup returns nothing, the page points you to the contact form, and it links a list of withdrawn certificates and labels. A logo with no number cannot be resolved there.

The Buying Guide is the directory of certified products, manufacturers, and brands. A separate shopping directory searches brands and stores.

For summer cloth types, see Các loại vải phù hợp cho mùa hè. That note is about fibre and hand-feel. This note is about which claim the hangtag is allowed to make.

Sources

Pages and documents read on 5 November 2026.