Ohio Testing Requirements: What You Need to Know

If you sell stuffed articles in the United States, you probably know about Ohio’s sample testing requirements, a mandatory part of bringing products to market in the state.

GRS recently hosted a webinar covering the ins and outs of Ohio testing. We have collected the highlights in this blog, including an outline of Ohio’s requirements, GRS’ relationship with the testing lab IDFL, and frequently asked questions about Ohio testing.

What Are Ohio’s Testing Requirements?

Ohio requires stuffed bedding, furniture, and toys to be tested to identify fill before the product will be cleared for sale in the state. Manufacturers must submit a sample of their product to an approved third-party testing lab.

These requirements are written out in Ohio Revised Code, 373.08:

All persons required to register under division (A) of section 3713.02 of the Revised Code manufacturing, making, or wholesaling bedding or stuffed toys, or both, that are sold or offered for sale shall have the material content of their products tested and analyzed at an established laboratory designated by the superintendent of industrial compliance before the bedding or stuffed toys are sold or offered for sale.

What Is the Testing Process?

Ohio requires a minimum of 1 sample per URN be lab tested to verify filling material content. Filling materials are allowed a ±10% tolerance of the findings of a lab report and must include adjunctive terminology disclosures.

Prior to July 2022, Ohio’s in-house state lab performed all sample testing. After that date, Ohio began outsourcing bedding and upholstered furniture testing to approved third-party labs.

Testing can be performed by any third-party lab that Ohio has explicitly approved. GRS partners with IDFL to offer quick and efficient Ohio-approved testing for our customers.

Ohio Testing with GRS & IDFL

IDFL is a trusted third-party testing lab for Ohio samples. IDFL has testing facilities worldwide: in the USA, China, and Europe. GRS facilitates testing with IDFL in its entirety for our customers, every step of the way:

• Submitting a sample to your preferred IDFL lab location
• Completing IDFL’s testing form
• Receiving your test analysis
• Facilitating testing fee payments from you to the lab
• Sending all required documentation to the Ohio state office

IDFL offers synthetic and natural fill testing for Ohio testing requirements. They also specialize in textile testing and finished product testing, should you need it.

Synthetic Material Testing

IDFL conducts testing per Ohio standards to identify synthetic blends, fiber power, fiber analysis, and other synthetic material specifications.

Down & Feather Testing

IDFL is the industry leader in down and feather testing. They test for Ohio and federal standards to identify down composition, species, oxygen and turbidity, fill power, and other natural fill specifications.

Frequently Asked Questions

The GRS team covered these frequently asked questions during the Ohio testing webinar. If you have any further questions about the process, please direct them to LL@globalrsinc.com 

If we have a joint URN and we recently got it, should we test?

Yes, Ohio requires a minimum of 1 sample per URN be lab tested to verify filling material content. 

If you are interested in beginning the Ohio sample testing process, please contact the GRS Labeling Team at LL@globalrsinc.com. We can provide you with a customized testing estimate for your product.

Once a factory has a registration number, when they produce a new toy, what steps are required for the item to be sold under the factory's registration number?

Pertaining specifically to Ohio toy registration, no additional testing is required when a company produces a new toy under an existing registration number. This is because the 1 sample minimum requirement for the URN has already been met.

How does the testing apply to upholstered furniture? What about those containing polyurethane foam and olefin foam?

Testing is required for upholstered furniture and submission instructions are product-specific. For example, some products will require the full, finished article to be submitted to the lab (cushions, pillows, small items etc.). Other bulkier items, such as mattresses and sofas, have different submission requirements. 

If your company has an upholstered furniture item that you would like to test, please contact the GRS Labeling Team at LL@globalrsinc.com. We can provide you with a customized testing estimate for your product. 

What are the costs for GRS and the lab testing? 

IDFL’s testing fees begin at $120 for a synthetic single-filling sample. Each additional filling in the product will incur an additional fee of $50 per filling. 

As a note, animal-derived fill, such as down and feathers, are subject to higher testing fees due to the increased processing required to determine cleanliness, species designation, and composition. 

Regarding GRS Product Testing Facilitation Fees, these fees are $177 for management subscribers (i.e. customers with an active License Management or Guaranteed Compliance subscription) and $197 for non-management customers. 

The GRS Product Testing Facilitation Fee covers our team completing IDFL’s form, providing customized submission and mailing instructions, receiving and processing the test report, facilitating testing fee payments, completing changes to the law label as necessary, and submitting all required documentation to the Ohio state office. 

Do children's car seats need testing? 

Yes, children’s car seats do require Ohio sample testing if registering for either a new Ohio URN or an Ohio license to recognize another state’s URN.

If you need your mattress tested, what's the minimum size it needs to be? 

Mattress samples can either be: 

1. the full mattress 
2. a scaled-down version of the mattress, or
3. a 24-inch x 24-inch cutout of a mattress that includes a corner as well as ticking

If a brand uses multiple factories, is one registration number adequate? 

No, URNs are registered to a physical manufacturing location. Only 1 URN per factory location is allowed. 

If your company has multiple factories, a URN for each factory will need to be obtained.

Do importers need to have their products tested, or just the manufacturer? 

Ohio requires a minimum of 1 sample per URN be lab tested to verify filling material content. URNs are assigned to physical manufacturing locations. As such, the testing requirement typically only falls on the manufacturer. 

However, one exception is if an importer and manufacturer are registering a joint URN (i.e. a URN that is co-owned by both companies). In this case, a product that is manufactured by the registering factory will need to be tested. This will be a product that the factory specifically produces for that importer.

If a URN produces multiple products with a variety of filling components (different law labels used), do you need to provide a test sample for each product? 

No, not all samples will need to be tested. 

Ohio requires a minimum of 1 sample per URN be lab tested to verify filling material content. Once the 1 sample minimum is reached, companies are not obligated to submit additional items for testing.