OEKO-TEX Standard 100 for Cleaning Sponge Importers: What Class II and Class IV Actually Mean

What the Standard Actually Tests

OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is not a factory audit and not a quality grade. It is a laboratory test of the finished material itself, run by independent institutes. The list of regulated substances covers formaldehyde, heavy metals, AZO dyes, phthalates, and several hundred other chemicals that import regulations in the EU, US, and Japan restrict or ban in consumer products.

For a cleaning sponge, the test answers one practical question: if a person handles this product wet, every day, for months, is anything migrating out of the material? That is why European retail chains and professional cleaning brands increasingly treat OEKO-TEX as a gate, not a bonus.

The Four Product Classes, in Plain Terms

Class	Applies To	Why It Matters for Sponges
Class I	Products for babies and toddlers	Strictest limits; not typically required for cleaning products
Class II	Products in direct, prolonged skin contact	The relevant level for sponges, cloths, and gloves held wet in bare hands
Class III	Products with limited skin contact	Looser limits; sometimes quoted by suppliers whose product only qualifies at this level
Class IV	Decoration and furnishing materials	Baseline level; still tested against the same substance list

When a supplier says “OEKO-TEX certified,” ask which class. A Class IV certificate on a kitchen sponge that buyers hold in wet hands does not answer the question your retail customer will ask. Class II does.

How to Verify a Certificate in Two Minutes

Every valid OEKO-TEX certificate has a number printed on it. Enter that number at the official label check on the OEKO-TEX website and you will see the certificate holder, the validity period, and the certified product scope. Two things to check:

• Is it still valid? Certificates expire annually and must be renewed with retesting.
• Does the scope match what you are buying? A certificate that covers melamine foam blocks does not automatically cover finished cellulose cloths with dyes and prints.

FoamTech’s current certificates are 26.HCN.79020 (Class II) and 26.HCN.99360 (Class IV). We publish the numbers precisely so that importers can verify them independently, rather than taking a marketing claim at face value.

The Full Compliance Stack Your Channel Will Ask About

OEKO-TEX rarely stands alone in a European buyer’s vendor questionnaire. The questions that follow it, in order of frequency:

• REACH (EC) No 1907/2006: SVHC substance screening. FoamTech melamine foam tests all 247 SVHC entries with no detections.
• amfori BSCI: social compliance audit, required by most EU retail chains.
• ISO 9001 / 14001 / 45001: quality, environmental, and occupational health management systems.
• FDA food contact (US): total migration below 0.3 mg/in2 for sponges marketed for food-contact surfaces.

Having the full stack matters most for cellulose products marketed on sustainability, because eco claims draw regulatory attention first. Our premium cellulose sponge cloths and plant-based coconut fiber kitchen sponges are both produced under this certification framework, with batch documentation available at order confirmation.

Three Questions to Put in Your Next RFQ

1. Which OEKO-TEX class does the exact SKU I am buying fall under, and what is the certificate number?
2. Will the certificate be valid through my production and delivery window?
3. Can test reports be issued per production batch, not only for the approval sample?

Suppliers who answer all three in writing are usually the ones whose paperwork survives an audit. Suppliers who answer vaguely are the reason audits fail.