Textile certifications carry different weight. OEKO-TEX and GOTS are the two EU procurement teams routinely require — both independently audited and expensive to fake. Below: what each one verifies, the tier hierarchy buyers ask about, the cycle they’re re-audited on, and what Fabrixa carries today.
Different products carry different cert combinations — apparel and bedding hold the strictest tier; outdoor synthetics carry product-appropriate certifications. Each product page lists what applies to that SKU. Here’s the summary.
Applied to apparel, kidswear and bedding cotton bases. Class I is the strictest tier — the same one applied to babywear for under-threes — limiting 300+ individual chemical residues to levels far below regulatory thresholds.
Applied to the organic cotton bases used across apparel and home textiles. GOTS verifies the chain of custody from organic farming through to finished textile, including labour and chemistry standards at every stage.
Outdoor poly-acrylic cushions, microfibre shower curtains and other synthetic-substrate items hold OEKO-TEX Standard 100 at the product-appropriate tier — verified against the chemical limits for the use case.
OEKO-TEX Standard 100 verifies a textile carries residual chemicals only below specified limits across hundreds of substances — pesticides, heavy metals, formaldehyde, allergenic dyes, carcinogenic compounds, phthalates. The thresholds depend on the product class, which depends on how the textile contacts the body. The re-audit cycle is annual, and the certificate references on Fabrixa shipments resolve to the live registry.
| Tier | Use case | Restriction level | Where Fabrixa applies it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class I | Babywear, under-3 articles | Strictest — lowest residual limits | Kidswear (mandatory); apparel & bedding cotton — our default |
| Class II | Skin-contact articles (apparel, bedding) | Strict | The common apparel default elsewhere; we apply Class I instead |
| Class III | No skin contact (curtains, decor) | Moderate | Curtains and decorative cushions on synthetic bases — product-appropriate |
| Class IV | Decorative material (upholstery, wall coverings) | Lower | Not used — everything is skin-adjacent or higher |
GOTS is the world’s most widely recognised organic-textile certification. It verifies a textile contains a minimum proportion of certified-organic fibre (95% for the ‘organic’ label, 70% for ‘made with organic’) AND that every processing stage between — spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing, finishing, cut-and-sew — meets defined environmental and social criteria. The re-audit cycle is annual; every facility holds its own certificate, and the chain-of-custody docs on each shipment resolve to those.
They answer different questions. OEKO-TEX Standard 100 tests the finished textile for harmful substances; GOTS certifies the organic fibre and the whole processing chain behind it, including social criteria. Skin-contact safety alone needs Standard 100; an organic claim needs GOTS. Fabrixa holds both on its cotton apparel and bedding bases.
Procurement teams often see a forest of overlapping certification logos. Quick orientation on the most common ones — what each verifies, where it overlaps with OEKO-TEX or GOTS, and where it adds something distinct.
| Certification | What it verifies | Audit cycle | Used by Fabrixa |
|---|---|---|---|
| OEKO-TEX Standard 100 | Chemical residual limits in finished textiles | Annual | Yes — default across the range, Class I on apparel & bedding |
| OEKO-TEX Made in Green | Standard 100 plus a Sustainable Production audit | Annual | Available on request for specific SKU lines |
| OEKO-TEX STeP | Sustainable Textile Production at facility level | Three years | At our Portuguese print partner’s facility |
| GOTS | Organic content + social and environmental processing standards | Annual | Yes — on organic cotton apparel & bedding bases |
| GRS (Global Recycled Standard) | Recycled content with chain of custody | Annual | Not yet — recycled-content lines on the roadmap |
| BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) | Improved farming on conventional cotton | Various | Not used — we go to GOTS on the cotton we use |
| bluesign | Chemical management at facility level | Annual | Not directly — OEKO-TEX + STeP cover the same ground |
| EU Ecolabel | EU-administered environmental performance label | Three–four years | Available on specific SKU programmes — talk to our team |
Plenty of producers cite certifications they don’t hold — or hold one tier and claim a higher one. These three checks take ten minutes and tell you whether a claim is real.
OEKO-TEX and GOTS both keep public registries. Every active certificate has a unique number that resolves to a live entry — product, facility, expiry, restriction level. If a supplier can’t produce a number that resolves, the claim isn’t real.
Most certificates expire annually. A 2022 certificate cited in 2026 doesn’t cover today’s production. Always confirm the certificate is currently valid for the batch you’re receiving.
A facility-level STeP certificate doesn’t mean every product the facility ships meets Standard 100. A Class III certificate doesn’t cover skin-contact apparel. Read the certificate scope, not just the logo.
Fabrixa shipments include certificate references resolved against the live registries — not just logo claims. ESG and procurement teams can verify against the public entries directly.
Whoever buys printed textiles — for a brand, a shop or a platform — cannot personally audit every production step. Certifications do exactly that job on the buyer’s behalf.
GOTS certifies the organic cotton chain from field to finished garment — fibre origin, processing chemistry and social criteria. OEKO-TEX Standard 100 tests the finished product for harmful substances. Together they cover both how a textile was made and what ends up against the skin.
Every Fabrixa article lists its certifications directly in the catalog, certificate number included — no generic logo claims. For resellers that means answering the end customer’s “is this really sustainable?” with verifiable documents instead of promises.
GOTS, the Global Organic Textile Standard, certifies that a textile contains certified-organic fibre (at least 70%, or 95% for the organic label) and that every processing step meets its environmental and social criteria, with traceability through the whole chain.
That the finished textile has been tested for harmful substances and stays below the limits for its product class. Class I, the strictest tier for babywear, is the default for our cotton apparel and bedding.
They answer different questions. For skin-contact safety, OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is enough. For an organic claim on the label, you need GOTS. Fabrixa holds both on its cotton apparel and bedding bases, so you can use either claim.
Both OEKO-TEX and GOTS keep public registries. Check the certificate number, the expiry date and what exactly is certified — the product class or the facility. Certificate references ship with every Fabrixa order.
OEKO-TEX Standard 100 across the range, Class I on cotton apparel and bedding, and GOTS on the organic cotton bases. Made in Green and STeP documentation is available on request for specific lines.
Evaluating Fabrixa as a supplier? Our OEKO-TEX and GOTS certifications are independently audited and verifiable in the public registries. Enterprise POD partners receive the full certification documentation and audit trail during onboarding — talk to our team to start that review.
