Textile Certifications and Compliance: What OEKO-TEX, GOTS and GRS Actually Mean for B2B Buyers
Certification comes up in almost every B2B fabric conversation. A brand's sourcing team wants to know which standards a fabric meets, what those standards actually verify, and what that means for their own product. This article looks at the three certifications most often mentioned in digitally printed fabric sourcing, OEKO-TEX Standard 100, GOTS and GRS, along with the REACH regulation, and explains what each one actually covers.
What is OEKO-TEX Standard 100?
OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is a product safety certification. It confirms that a textile product has been tested by an independent lab for harmful substances, including dye residues, heavy metals and restricted chemical limits. It is not an environmental management certification; it applies directly to the finished product.
What is GOTS?
GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) verifies organic fiber content together with environmental and social criteria across the production process. It covers stages such as dyeing, processing and labour conditions, not just the raw material.
What is GRS (Global Recycled Standard)?
GRS verifies the recycled fiber content of a fabric and its chain of custody through the supply chain. It goes beyond recycled content alone, also covering social and environmental criteria in production, along with requirements around chemical use in processing. The certification provides a documented record supporting a specific recycled-content claim, rather than a general sustainability statement.
What about REACH, and where does DESENIX stand on it?
REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) is an EU regulation covering chemical substances, including those used in imported products, and it applies across many industries, textiles included. It is an industry-wide regulatory framework, not a single company's certificate. If your order requires REACH-related confirmation, that needs to be checked for the specific fabric and supplier involved.
Is every fabric in the DESENIX catalog certified?
No. Certificates, composition details and technical documents are available for eligible fabrics in the catalog, not for the entire range. Which certification applies, if any, varies fabric by fabric.
How can a buyer confirm certification for a specific order?
If you need certified fabric for a specific order, you can request the available documentation for that fabric from our team before ordering. DESENIX coordinates fabric sourcing and digital printing through a network of contracted suppliers and production partners, so certification is confirmed together with those partners rather than issued by DESENIX itself.
Contact Our TeamThe takeaway
A certification is documentation that a specific fabric meets a specific standard. It is not a blanket claim about a supplier. The right question in B2B sourcing is not whether a supplier is certified in general, but whether the fabric you are ordering carries the documentation you need. You can browse the fabric catalog and confirm available certification with our team before placing an order.
Official sources
- OEKO-TEX: oeko-tex.com
- GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard): global-standard.org
- Textile Exchange, Global Recycled Standard (GRS): textileexchange.org
- European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), REACH: echa.europa.eu/regulations/reach