All bamboo fibre produced for use in clothing and so on has to be Oeko-Tex 100 certified. Oeko-Tex is a global certification that allows consumers to easily identify textile products that pose no risk to human health.

Oeko-Tex 100 certified fibre has been found to contain no trace chemicals that pose any health threat whatsoever. It is common knowledge that the harmful chemicals can enter the body through skin contact and during the 1990s it was common practice for some manufacturers to used harmful substances when making clothing.

And so the globally recognised Oeko-Tex 100 Standard was introduced, giving consumers reassurance about their choice of textile products. Oeko-Tex® provides the standards and the tests necessary to screen textiles for substances that include:

• cancer-causing dyestuffs
• formaldehyde
• heavy metals
• pesticides
• preservative ingredients like pentachlorophenol and tetrachlorophenol
• synthetic compounds and allergy-inducing dyestuffs.

The Oeko-Tex certification also tests for things like pH-value and colourfastness, which helps to safeguard consumers' health.

In order to be able to display the Oeko-Tex label on their products and marketing material, manufacturers have to comply with a range of tests across all stages of production - from raw materials to end products and all the processes in between. The certificate is renewable on a yearly basis but can be revoked if the manufacturer fails to comply with the Oeko-Tex standards.