What is Organic Fabric

What does organic fibre certified by GOTS mean?

The International Working Group for the Global Organic Textile Standard is comprised from 4 reputed member organisations namely OTA (USA), IVN (Germany), Soil Association (UK) and JOCA (Japan), which contribute to the GOTS, together with further international stakeholder organizations and experts, their respective expertise in organic farming and environmentally and socially responsible textile processing.

The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is recognized worldwide as the leading processing standard for textiles made from organic fibres.

It defines high level environmental criteria along the entire supply chain of organic textiles.

Only textile products containing a minimum of 70% Organic fibres may be certified according to GOTS.

Some of the main key criteria for processing and manufacturing include :

1.   All chemical inputs (e.g. dyes, auxiliaries and process chemicals) must be evaluated and meeting basic requirements on toxicity and biodegradability/eliminability

2. Prohibition of critical inputs such as toxic heavy metals, formaldehyde, aromatic solvents, genetically modified organisms (GMO) and their enzymes

3. Azo dyes that release carcinogenic amine compounds are prohibited

4. Minimum social criteria based on the key norms of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) must be met by all processors