The OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 was developed in the early 1990s to meet the needs of consumers and the general public for healthy textile products. Negative headline news such as "Toxic Textiles" in the press was very common at that time and reflected the chemicals used in textile manufacturing as generally negative and harmful to health.

However, our demands for modern textile products cannot be met without the use of certain chemicals. Fashionable colors, easy care, longevity and many other features in textile products are demanded today and are partially indispensable depending on the purpose of use (for example, work clothes).

Until the implementation of the OEKO-TEX® Standards 100 standard, there was neither a Product Label that could evaluate the quality of textile quality for human ecology for consumers, nor a standard criterion for companies operating in the Textile and Clothing Industry to practically evaluate possible harmful substances in textile products. For this reason, the Austrian textile research institute Österreichische Textil-Forschungsinstitut (ÖTI) and the German research institute Forschungsinstitut Hohenstein developed the Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 based on the test standards they had in hand.