Cotton Origin Verification Testing

Are you confident that your cotton is sustainably sourced?

Cotton is commonly used in toys, childcare, childrenswear, furniture, homewares and pet products. However, nowadays, brands and manufacturers have to put more effort into it due to the surge in demand for supply chain transparency and sustainability.

With the importance of value chain transparency and environmental consciousness on the rise, some countries have made supply chain verification and traceability a mandatory requirement and it is increasingly essential for brands and manufacturers to be able to trace the origin of cotton in their supply chain.

Cotton Origin Verification Testing

Eurofins Cotton Origin Testing Service helps the toys and hardlines industry to verify the origin of cotton used in the manufacturing process through a combination of analytical techniques that includes Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) technology.

Growing cotton plants naturally absorb chemicals from their environment through the soil, air and precipitations. The precise combination and ratio of chemical elements and their isotopes in a cotton plant is therefore affected by location, temperature, weather patterns, water source and altitude. This gives cotton plants a unique environmental chemical signature specific to the region they were grown in.

Eurofins' sustainable chemistry experts can analyse cotton environmental signatures and use them as an origin verification tool.

Wide scope of cotton material testing

Eurofins cotton origin traceability testing can be offered on raw, processed and dyed cotton samples. The results of the isotope analysis can control if a sample is consistent with our global, geographical cotton database. In most cases down to country and regional level.

Eurofins cotton origin testing can analyse raw, processed, blended and dyed pure cotton samples, as well as blends of cotton with synthetic materials such as polyester and acrylic.

We can verify the geographic origin of your samples down to the country and, in most cases, regional levels.

Cotton verification testing process

We use a combination of analytical techniques, including the Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon, to form an environmental “signature” of our client’s sample. The sample’s environmental signature is then compared to that of cotton of known origin in our dynamic reference database.

If the signatures are consistent with each other, then the product sample passes, and its claimed origin is verified.

Benefits of Eurofins sustainable cotton verification services

• Cost-effective with quick turnaround times
• Wide scope of sample types from any point in the supply chain
• Service-leading global chemistry team
• Responsive support and advice from our subject matter experts
• Complimentary upstream and downstream services to verify, map and cleanse your supply chain

Why choose the Eurofins Toys & Hardlines network of laboratories?

With our global coverage of laboratories and expertise in toys and hardlines sustainability testing, we help the toys, childcare and childrenswear industry amidst the mounting regulations towards sustainability and compliance.

Contact us for further information and to discuss your testing needs.