A certificate page before and after: from scanned images to a record at Fersan.

What was on the page in the first version?

The page’s main section had 123 words. Four certificates were listed by name only: three ISO management system certificates and OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100. The text had no scope, no issuing body and no expiry date; the only number was OEKO-TEX’s reference number. In place of the certificates stood seven scanned certificate images: three ISO certificates, one OEKO-TEX certificate and, under an “accreditation” heading, three brand laboratory approvals.

The real problem appeared when we opened and read the images one by one. The expiry date on the three ISO certificates was May 17, 2023, on the OEKO-TEX certificate December 31, 2023; the dates of the three laboratory approvals were in 2023 and 2024, the most recent April 28, 2024. The page, meanwhile, was dated June 2026. Because these dates were nowhere written as text, a buyer looking at the page would either have enlarged the image and read it, or never noticed. The images also showed employees' names and photos; this note does not use them.

Why does a scanned image not replace a certificate record?

Because an image is not a record. The four pieces of information a buyer asks for, namely the certificate’s scope, number, issuing body and expiry date, were locked inside the image; neither a search engine nor the buyer’s own tool could read them. Today’s page also shows the certificate image on each card, but next to the record now, not in its place. Having the brand approvals under an “accreditation” heading was also a terminology error: accreditation is the confirmation by an accreditation body of the competence of a certification body or laboratory; a brand approving its supplier’s laboratory is not a substitute for it. On June 19, the brand approvals and the supplier title that came with them were removed from the page.

In what order was the certificate record built?

• June 23: the page went from four certificates to nine; each certificate became a card with its scope, number and issuing body, and got a downloadable file and its own detail page.
• July 21: four ISO certificates were renewed and ISO 50001 was added; the accreditation body and accreditation number were written next to the certification bodies.
• July 21: a table setting out side by side what each certificate proves and what it does not, and FAQs answering buyers' questions, were added.
• July 28: the ten certificates went into the structured data, identical to the information visible on the cards.

The order was deliberate: first the page says what is true, then it states clearly what it does not say, and last the machine reads the same thing. The structured data carried no information that is not visible on the page; every record is identical to its card. The step from nine to ten was also the addition of a certificate: ISO 50001 on July 21.

What is on the page today?

The main section has 2,373 words, and ten certificates sit in four groups: management systems, product safety, recycling, and social and environmental performance. All ten cards carry the scope, certificate number, issuing body, detail page and downloadable file. Six show an expiry date; the recycling card has a status label saying the certificate is being renewed, and the two site performance modules show the module’s year and that it was independently verified. On one product certificate’s card, however, three test numbers stand without a date; that is the page’s gap today.

Why does a certificate page state what it does not prove?

Because a certificate’s name says less than its scope. Fersan’s table, whose heading asks which certificate proves what and what it does not, says that two of the ten certificates are product certificates and eight are site certificates, and each row states which certificate answers the question that falls outside a certificate’s scope. The clearest example is the occupational health and safety certificate: its scope is the sales activity only, and the table says plainly that it does not cover the knitting and dyeing site. The same attitude is in the FAQ: the answer to the question about a GOTS or organic cotton certificate is a no, with its reasons.

What can a buyer now do without asking the company?

Verify the certificate themselves. The FAQ says that each certificate’s number and issuing body are written both on the card and on the detail page, that the OEKO-TEX numbers are looked up in Label Check and the recycling scope certificate in Textile Exchange’s directory. Another question explains the difference between the three-year certification cycle on the certificates and the expiry date; in the first version’s images, exactly these two stood side by side and the date was not readable. The general path to verification is in the is a company’s ISO certificate real guide.

What generalizes from this case?

Three things. First, a certificate is not an image; it is a record whose scope, number, issuing body and expiry date are text. Second, a good record also says what it does not prove; that is the information a list of certificates cannot give on its own. Third, a record ages: even Fersan’s page today has a card missing its date, and without a maintenance calendar, even the most accurate page will drift back over time to where the seven scanned images stood. The fields of a certificate record and its place on the site are in the certified manufacturer website guide; for your own certificates, you can produce the structured data with the certificate markup tool.