What GOTS means (and doesn’t)

GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) is the certification most shoppers reach for when they want "organic" to mean something specific rather than a marketing word. It does cover real, auditable ground — but it is not the same thing as a chemical-safety test, and conflating the two is one of the most common mix-ups in how these labels get read.

What GOTS actually certifies

GOTS certifies organic fibre content by percentage — at least 95% certified organic fibre for the "organic" grade, at least 70% for "made with organic" wording — and layers processing criteria on top: restrictions on the chemicals allowed in dyeing and finishing, wastewater treatment requirements, and social criteria covering labour conditions at certified facilities. It is a supply-chain standard: certification follows the material from certified farm through certified processing stages to a licensed final product, which is why a real GOTS certificate carries a licence number checkable on the Global Standard's public database.

What it does not certify

GOTS does not run a substance-by-substance test on the finished garment the way OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 does. Its processing criteria restrict which chemical classes are allowed in a GOTS-certified facility, which is a different kind of assurance than a lab report confirming a specific finished item came in under specific limit values. GOTS also does not certify synthetic fibres — a GOTS claim only ever applies to the natural-fibre share of a blend, so a "60% GOTS organic cotton, 40% polyester" product is certifying the cotton portion, not making any claim about the polyester.

Why the licence number matters more than the logo

Because GOTS is a supply-chain claim rather than a lab result on the item in your hand, the only way to have real confidence in it is to trace the certificate — which is exactly what a licence number lets a shopper, or us, do on the Global Standard's own database. A "GOTS" mention with no licence number is a declared claim, not a certified one, and we grade it accordingly.

What to look for

• A licence number, not just the word "GOTS" or the logo.
• Whether the claim is "organic" (95%+) or "made with organic" (70%+).
• That a blended product's non-organic components (polyester, elastane) are not covered by the GOTS claim at all.
• Whether the certificate is current, since GOTS licences are renewed on a cycle and a lapsed one is not the same as an active one.