Biotech Company Creates New Test for Animal Substances in Clothing
For Immediate Release:
11 August 2020
Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
Biotech Company Creates New Test for Animal Substances in Clothing
AMSlab Verifies Insect-Free Textiles for ‘PETA-Approved Vegan’ Logo
London – PETA has a new tool for verifying that clothing is 100% free of animal-derived substances, thanks to quality control laboratory AMSlab, which has just developed a way to test if a piece of clothing has been treated with carmine, a red dye made from crushed lice and other cochineal insects.
AMSlab has added the new test to its “AMSvegan” testing kit, which companies can use to prove that their products fulfil all the criteria for bearing the “PETA-Approved Vegan” logo – PETA’s way of helping shoppers quickly find animal-free clothing, shoes, and accessories.
“Today’s kind consumers don’t want insects to be killed, dried, and crushed for their red jumpers and lipsticks,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is pleased to point compassionate clothing companies towards AMSlab’s new way to make sure that textiles were made without harming any living, feeling being.”
AMSlab’s new test uses mass spectrometry to test whether the concentration of red colour exceeds a certain limit – if it does, it means that the colour is of animal origin and the clothing has not just come into contact with carmine red in the production process, for example by being produced in the same factory. Companies can currently use the “AMSvegan” test kit on textiles and footwear, and the laboratory plans to expand its use to the cosmetics industry.
More than 1,000 fashion brands and designers around the world, including Topshop, have certified products or collections with the “PETA-Approved Vegan” logo since it was introduced in 2013.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear or abuse in any other way” – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.
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