OEKO-TEX Certified Clothing: What Standard 100 Verifies
Updated Jul 17, 2026 2 mins read
Edited by Urša Satler
OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is a chemical-residue test on the finished textile. A garment carrying the OEKO-TEX label has been laboratory-tested and confirmed free from a defined list of harmful substances at the levels set by the standard, which is updated annually.
What it tests
The standard screens for several hundred substances, including formaldehyde, heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury), pesticide residues, banned azo dyes that release carcinogenic amines, chlorinated phenols, allergenic disperse dyes, phthalates, and PFAS-family chemicals. The thresholds are stricter for products in close contact with skin (baby clothes, underwear) than for outerwear or upholstery.
What it does not certify
OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is a chemistry test, not an organic-content certification. A 100% conventional-polyester t-shirt can carry an OEKO-TEX label as long as the finished garment passes the substance test. OEKO-TEX also does not audit labour conditions or supply-chain transparency. Those are addressed by a separate OEKO-TEX programme called STeP, which most retail garments do not carry.
For a cloth that is both verified organic and chemistry-tested, look for a garment that carries both GOTS and OEKO-TEX, or a GOTS-only label (GOTS includes its own chemistry restrictions).
What to look for
The OEKO-TEX Standard 100 hangtag will include a unique test number and the name of the test institute. You can verify any test number on the OEKO-TEX label-check website.
How to shop for OEKO-TEX certified clothing
Because Standard 100 is a product-level test, certification varies item by item even within one brand — so check the individual garment, not the brand's homepage. On MaterialFilter, every product page lists the certifications we could verify for that exact item, and the shop can be filtered to OEKO-TEX Standard 100 alone. When certified pieces are live in our catalog, they appear below with current prices.
About the editor
Urša Satler is the founder of Purefect Choice, an online non-toxic goods shop in Slovenia. She stocks what she and her family actually need and use themselves, chosen on material composition and certification.
She started MaterialFilter for a plainly selfish reason: she was tired of checking labels in shops one garment at a time, and tired of hunting for fibre content buried five clicks deep on a product page — usually to discover that a beautiful dress was mostly polyester. MaterialFilter does that checking once, up front, so the composition is the first thing you see instead of the last thing you find.
She sets the standard this site scores against and owns its editorial direction. What she brings to it is the habit of reading a composition label before anything else — daily, for her own family and the shop she runs — and one rule that keeps that habit honest: every claim on MaterialFilter is meant to be checkable against a certification body's own public register, so you never have to take her word for it.