By Textile Insights | May 13, 2024

A recent study has revealed that traces of banned Chinese cotton were found in 19 percent of garment and other merchandise samples selling at US stores in the past year.

The study highlighted challenges of complying with the US law aimed at blocking imports of cotton linked to forced labour in China.

The study was done by researchers from Natural Resource Analytics, isotope testing firm Stratum Reservoir and Applied DNA Sciences.

They analysed apparel samples, cotton swabs and shoes from big box retailers and ecommerce platforms, but declined to name the brands or retailers from whom they took the samples.

The researchers used isotopic testing, which can link cotton to specific geographic areas and they tested the samples for traces of cotton from Xinjiang, the far western region of China.