A textile mill should hold the certifications your market and your product claims require, and nothing you cannot verify. For most buyers that means OEKO-TEX Standard 100 for chemical safety, a social audit such as SMETA or BSCI, and a fibre certificate such as GOTS, OCS, GRS or BCI if you make an organic, recycled or sustainable cotton claim. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 show that systems exist but say little about the cloth.
The certificate list on a mill's website is not the same as the certificate status in the certifier's database. Certificates expire, get suspended, and sometimes belong to a sister company or a different site. The checking takes ten minutes and should be done before the first sample is paid for.
The certifications and what each one proves
- OEKO-TEX Standard 100. Tests the finished article for a list of harmful substances. Issued per product class and article group, so check that the certificate covers the fabric you are buying and not a different one.
- GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard). Covers organic fibre content and the processing chain, including chemical inputs and social criteria. Needs a scope certificate for the mill and a transaction certificate for each lot.
- OCS (Organic Content Standard). Tracks organic fibre content only, without the processing rules of GOTS. Also needs transaction certificates.
- GRS and RCS (Global Recycled Standard and Recycled Claim Standard). For recycled polyester, cotton or other fibre. GRS adds chemical, social and environmental criteria, while RCS tracks content only.
- BCI (Better Cotton). A mass balance system rather than a physical trace, so a BCI claim does not mean the cotton in your fabric was Better Cotton. Useful for corporate sourcing targets, not for product claims.
- ISO 9001. A quality management system is documented and audited. It does not test fabric.
- ISO 14001. An environmental management system is in place. Useful for processing houses, where effluent treatment matters.
- SA8000. A social accountability standard with full certification, stronger than an audit report.
- BSCI and Sedex (SMETA). Social compliance audits rather than certificates. Most European retailers accept one or the other, so ask which your customers require.
- WRAP. A social compliance certification for garment and sewn product factories rather than fabric mills.
- ZDHC. A programme for chemical management in wet processing, with a manufacturing restricted substances list for input chemicals and wastewater guidelines. Ask whether the processing house reports to the ZDHC Gateway.
Verify the certificate, then verify the lot
Every major certifier runs a public database. OEKO-TEX, GOTS, Textile Exchange (for OCS, GRS and RCS) and Sedex all let you search by certificate number or company name. Check that the holder name matches the legal entity on your contract, the site address matches the mill you visited, the scope covers your product, and the certificate is valid on the date you check.
A scope certificate says the mill is allowed to produce certified goods. It does not say your lot was certified. For GOTS, OCS, GRS and RCS, ask for a transaction certificate issued for your specific shipment, naming your company as the buyer, the quantity and the lot. Without it you cannot pass the claim on to your own customers.
What a certificate does not tell you
A social audit report with findings is normal, and a report with no findings at all is rare and worth a second look. An ISO 9001 certificate from a certifier you have never heard of should be checked for accreditation. In the Ahmedabad and Surat clusters, certification is often held by the composite mill but not by the processing house that actually dyes your fabric, so ask where each certified step is performed.
Certification does not replace testing. OEKO-TEX covers the article class tested at the time of certification, and your lot still needs its own restricted substances test if your market requires one. Treat the certificate as permission to proceed, and the lab report on your lot as the evidence.
How we help
We check each certificate on the certifier's database before a mill goes on your shortlist, and we visit the site named on it. During production we obtain the transaction certificate for your lot and send sealed cuttings to an NABL-accredited lab for the tests your market requires. If you are not sure which certificates your product claim actually needs, we offer a free 20-minute sourcing review.