In 2016, Target cut ties with textile manufacturer Wilson India after discovering that 750,000 sheets labeled "Egyptian cotton" were not 100% Egyptian at all, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Egypt has long been known for its excellent production of long staple cotton, a variety of crop with long threads that result in a softer and more durable fabric.

Therefore, products bearing the Egyptian mark are usually more expensive than others.

And Egyptian cotton is not the only one that is exposed to counterfeiting, as the matter extends to Indian cotton, Chinese silk, organic textiles, and other clothing and fashion that put incorrect labels about the purity and quality of the product, in order to attract consumers and make more money.

Counterfeiting extends to clothing that places incorrect labels to attract consumers and make more money (Pixaby)

And in 2020, the Global Organic Textile Standard Gots said that 20,000 tons of Indian cotton were "falsely" labeled as organic, and that figure constitutes about one-sixth of India's cotton production.

In 2017, a famous Vietnamese silk brand admitted that only half of the silk it used came from China, noting that it was marking its products as "100% Chinese silk".

In 2018, many British retailers were forced to withdraw fur products from their stores after they were accused of trading in counterfeit textiles, and it became clear later that these textiles were actually genuine and not counterfeit, according to a report published by the BBC platform a few days ago.

Amidst this chaos, how can we know if the clothes and international labels in our wardrobes are authentic and not fake?

From choosing an organic cotton t-shirt to buying sneakers made from recycled plastic bottles, many of us are choosing to pay more in the hope that our purchases will be of higher quality, save the environment, or help people.

However, as the previous examples have shown;

We don't always get what we think we paid the money for.

Organic cotton has a lower carbon footprint than conventional cotton, and is grown without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that may seep into nearby rivers and pollute the local environment. It is also more expensive than regular cotton;

This brings additional profits to the farmers, as well as protecting their health from the side effects of harmful fertilizers and pesticides.

But how can one be sure of the type of cotton used, especially with the complexity of supply chains?

Organic cotton is more expensive than normal, which brings additional profits to farmers as well as protecting their health (Shutterstock)

Supply chains are complicated

Complex supply chains make it difficult to ensure the authenticity and quality of the garments and textiles we buy, as each step of the chain takes place in a different country.

for example;

Cotton grown in Egypt may be shipped to India to be spun into yarn in an industrial facility there, then sent to Portugal for cutting and sewing, before being sold in a department store in London or New York.

This supply chain is typical and easy, but there are supply chains that are much more complex than that, according to the BBC.

To allow companies to verify the authenticity of their products, they are turning to technology that enables them to trace fibers from the field to the shop floor.

In this vein, a Long Island-based company called Applied DNA Science (APDN) has developed a way to determine what is real and what is fake by using technology that is able to identify authentic cotton varieties by examining DNA. specific to each type.

This technology is able to trace textiles and finished cotton products back to their source on the farm that planted them, according to the Forbes platform.

Egyptian cotton is not the only one that is subject to counterfeiting, as the matter extends to Indian cotton and Chinese silk (networking sites)

How does this technology work?

Cotton fibers are living plant cells, and they contain the full set of cotton genes.

By the time the cotton boll matures, the cells weaken and the DNA begins to deteriorate, something that continues through harvesting, spinning, and weaving until the cells finally die.

However, DNA remains that bear their distinctive genetic signature, sufficient to permit examination and testing and confirmation of their provenance.

The Genetics Unit of the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service used this technology to genetically check multiple varieties of cotton, helping to protect the quality of products for the US market.

USDA scientists now possess a wide range of cotton germplasm from around the world, as cotton, like many other agricultural crops, adapts to the surrounding environment and growing conditions in each region.

This means that cotton grown in India, China, Spain, Egypt or Uzbekistan has unique characteristics that can be detected in the DNA of each species.

This technology enables global apparel companies and brands to make claims about the quality and origins of cotton, regardless of the complexity of the path from farm to store.

This will also protect the rights of farmers who grow a high quality product.

There are many other applications for this type of technology, such as verifying the original virgin olive oil, or making nutritional supplements.

The "isotope analysis" technique is suitable for ascertaining the sources of natural materials such as cotton, silk and wool (Shutterstock)

Radioisotope technology

Isotope analysis is another technique used to ascertain the authenticity of textiles. Each type of fiber carries a unique environmental signature, and the amounts of stable isotopes present in the environment vary with climate and soil conditions.

When plants and animals grow, they absorb stable isotopes in their bodies in the same proportions in which those isotopes are found in the environment, and they also absorb other elements in the environment, such as potassium and zinc.

By measuring the levels of these stable isotopes and other elements in the raw materials from a given farm, CII creates an individual fingerprint for that fiber.

Later, textile samples taken from the supply chain can be analyzed and compared with the stored fingerprints. This technique is suitable for ascertaining the sources of natural materials, such as cotton, silk and wool.

Ultimately, transparency across the textile industry requires not only technical solutions, but also legal legislation, ethical solutions, and a change in the way we work. We cannot know the truth unless the way we do business changes.