Does GOTS certify organic farming?

No. GOTS certifies what happens to the fiber after it leaves the farm — processing, manufacturing and trading. The organic farming itself is certified separately (for example, under the EU Organic Regulation), and GOTS requires that certification as a starting condition.

What's the difference between “Organic” and “Made with x% organic materials” on a GOTS label?

“Organic” means at least 95% certified organic fiber content. “Made with (x%) organic materials” means at least 70% and under 95%, with the exact percentage stated on the label. Below 70%, a product isn't eligible for GOTS certification or labeling at all.

What chemicals does GOTS actually ban?

Outright: azo dyes that release carcinogenic amines, chlorine bleaching, genetically modified organisms and their enzymes, formaldehyde, allergenic (skin-sensitizing) dyes, flame retardants, and PFAS. Heavy metals are handled differently — not an outright ban, but a strict residue limit value, since zero trace amounts from the surrounding environment can rarely be guaranteed. Restrictions also apply to packaging materials (no PVC) and accessories like trims and zips (no PVC, nickel or chrome).

Does GOTS cover factory working conditions and wages?

Yes. GOTS's social criteria, based on core ILO conventions, cover child and forced labor, freedom of association, discrimination and harassment, health and safety, working hours, and wages — including a requirement to calculate and work toward closing the gap to a living wage.

Can a brand just self-certify as GOTS?

No. GOTS certification requires independent third-party audits by an Approved Certification Body, done annually, plus a Transaction Certificate at every point certified goods change hands. A brand or facility cannot award itself the certification.

Does “GOTS-certified” mean the whole brand is certified?

A brand does need to hold its own GOTS certification to sell certified goods at all. What that certification doesn't do is extend automatically to everything else the brand makes — it applies to specific certified products, not the brand's whole range in one blanket claim. Not every Organic Basics product is GOTS-certified; the ones that are carry the GOTS label separately. Organic Basics is GOTS-certified under certification number GOTS-20447, certified by Control Union.

Cones of undyed cotton yarn piled in a white plastic crate

What does GOTS Certification actually cover?

Written by Alexander Christiansen, Compliance • Last updated 18 September 2026

The short answer

GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certifies everything that happens to a textile after the organic fiber leaves the farm: processing, manufacturing, and trading, checked against strict environmental and social criteria and verified by independent audits at every stage of the supply chain. It does not certify that the fiber itself was grown organically — that's a separate organic-farming certification (such as the EU Organic Regulation) that GOTS requires as a precondition before its own criteria even start.

What GOTS actually is

GOTS is managed by Global Standard, a non-profit — not a government body, and not any individual brand. It's the world's most widely used certification for organic textiles, and it exists specifically because “organic” on a clothing label used to mean almost nothing enforceable: a brand could use organic fiber and still bleach it with chlorine, dye it with carcinogenic dyes, or have it sewn in a factory with no safety standards, and still call the finished product “organic.”

GOTS closes that gap by certifying the entire processing chain, not just the raw material.

What part of the supply chain does GOTS cover?

GOTS starts where organic farming ends. Once organic fiber leaves the farm, every business that processes or manufactures it — ginning, spinning, knitting or weaving, dyeing and other wet processing, and cut-and-sew manufacturing — has to hold its own GOTS certification, all the way through to the finished, labeled product. A factory can't be “mostly GOTS” or opt out of one step in its own production.

What that means in practice:

Fiber growing is covered by a separate organic-agriculture certification (e.g. under the EU Organic Regulation), not by GOTS itself.

Everything from fiber processing to the finished, labeled garment is covered directly by GOTS, with a Transaction Certificate tracking the goods at every step.

This is also why the accurate way to describe a product is “this product is GOTS-certified” — not “GOTS-certified organic cotton” or “GOTS cotton.” GOTS certifies the processing; the organic fiber content is a separate, specific figure, stated on its own (e.g. “made with 95%+ organic cotton”).

Not every Organic Basics product is GOTS-certified. Where a product is, it's labeled separately from the rest of our range, so it's worth checking the specific product page or label rather than assuming certification applies company-wide. Organic Basics is GOTS-certified under certification number GOTS-20447, certified by Control Union.

The two label grades, and what the percentages mean

GOTS only allows two on-product label grades, based on the verified share of certified organic fiber in the product (accessories excluded from the calculation):

“Organic” — at least 95% certified organic fiber content. (Note: “100% Organic” isn't a valid GOTS label grade, even at 100% — the standard grade is simply “Organic.”)

“Made with (x%) organic materials” — at least 70% and under 95% certified organic fiber content, with the exact percentage stated.

Below 70% certified organic fiber, a product isn't eligible for GOTS certification or labeling at all.

What has to happen for a product to earn the label

GOTS certification rests on two separate sets of criteria, and a product has to pass both — it's not a single organic-fiber checkbox.

Environmental and chemical criteria. GOTS bans a defined list of chemical inputs outright at every processing stage: azo dyes that release carcinogenic amines, chlorine bleaching (only oxygen-based bleaching is allowed), genetically modified organisms and their enzymes, formaldehyde, allergenic (skin-sensitizing) dyes, flame retardants, and PFAS — plus aromatic solvents in discharge printing and phthalates or PVC in plastisol printing. Heavy metals are treated differently: instead of an outright ban, GOTS sets strict residue limit values, since it's rarely possible to guarantee zero trace amounts from the surrounding environment. Accessories (trims, zips and the like) can't contain PVC, nickel or chrome, and packaging can't contain PVC either; paper or cardboard packaging, hangtags and swing tags have to be recycled or FSC/PEFC-certified. On top of the chemical rules, certified facilities have requirements around wastewater treatment, resource efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions management.

Social criteria, based on core ILO conventions. Certified facilities must prohibit child labor and forced labor in all forms; protect freedom of association and collective bargaining; maintain zero tolerance for discrimination, harassment and gender-based violence; and run proper occupational health and safety systems, including fire safety and risk assessments. On pay and hours: wages have to meet the higher of the legal minimum or industry benchmark, with facilities required to calculate the gap to a living wage and work toward closing it; standard hours are capped at 8/day and 48/week, with overtime capped at 12 hours a week and voluntary, plus a guaranteed 24 consecutive hours of rest weekly. Homeworkers and migrant workers get specific additional protections.

How it's actually verified — not just declared

This is the part that separates GOTS from a brand simply printing a claim on a label. Certification requires:

Independent, third-party certification by an Approved Certification Body (not GOTS itself, and not the brand).

Annual audits of every certified facility in the chain.

Transaction Certificates — a document generated at every transfer of certified goods between certified entities, so the chain of custody can be traced back to source.

Physical segregation, not “mass balance” accounting — certified and non-certified material has to be kept physically separate throughout processing, not just balanced on paper.

Common questions

Does GOTS certify organic farming?	No. GOTS certifies what happens to the fiber after it leaves the farm — processing, manufacturing and trading. The organic farming itself is certified separately (for example, under the EU Organic Regulation), and GOTS requires that certification as a starting condition.
What's the difference between “Organic” and “Made with x% organic materials” on a GOTS label?	“Organic” means at least 95% certified organic fiber content. “Made with (x%) organic materials” means at least 70% and under 95%, with the exact percentage stated on the label. Below 70%, a product isn't eligible for GOTS certification or labeling at all.
What chemicals does GOTS actually ban?	Outright: azo dyes that release carcinogenic amines, chlorine bleaching, genetically modified organisms and their enzymes, formaldehyde, allergenic (skin-sensitizing) dyes, flame retardants, and PFAS. Heavy metals are handled differently — not an outright ban, but a strict residue limit value, since zero trace amounts from the surrounding environment can rarely be guaranteed. Restrictions also apply to packaging materials (no PVC) and accessories like trims and zips (no PVC, nickel or chrome).
Does GOTS cover factory working conditions and wages?	Yes. GOTS's social criteria, based on core ILO conventions, cover child and forced labor, freedom of association, discrimination and harassment, health and safety, working hours, and wages — including a requirement to calculate and work toward closing the gap to a living wage.
Can a brand just self-certify as GOTS?	No. GOTS certification requires independent third-party audits by an Approved Certification Body, done annually, plus a Transaction Certificate at every point certified goods change hands. A brand or facility cannot award itself the certification.
Does “GOTS-certified” mean the whole brand is certified?	A brand does need to hold its own GOTS certification to sell certified goods at all. What that certification doesn't do is extend automatically to everything else the brand makes — it applies to specific certified products, not the brand's whole range in one blanket claim. Not every Organic Basics product is GOTS-certified; the ones that are carry the GOTS label separately. Organic Basics is GOTS-certified under certification number GOTS-20447, certified by Control Union.

Sources: Global Standard, GOTS Conditions for the Use of Signs (v4.0) and the GOTS 7.0/8.0 standard texts; EU Regulation (EC) No. 834/2007 on organic production.