Science & Process Behind Certified Foam

When you shop for a mattress or upholstered furniture, you are often looking for comfort—not just physical comfort but the comfort and confidence of knowing that the furnishings you bring into your home and spend so much time with are made with materials you can feel good about.

That’s why the CertiPUR-US® foam certification program, administered by a nonprofit organization, was developed: to ensure the foam in mattresses, pillows, toppers, upholstered chairs and sofas—even dog beds, kids’ indoor cushions and some medical sleep support products—are made with flexible polyurethane foam that meets rigorous standards for content, emissions and durability.

Here are 10 points that offer a quick glimpse of the science and process behind our certification:

We only use independent accredited laboratories for testing and analyzing foams.
Our testing ensures the foams we certify are made without ozone depleters; made without PBDEs, TDCPP or TCEP (“Tris”) flame retardants; made without mercury, lead and other heavy metals; made without formaldehyde; made without phthalates regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission; and have low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) emissions for indoor air quality (less than 0.5 parts per million).
We prohibit foams made with any chemicals that have been identified by the Globally Harmonized System as substances that may cause cancer or genetic defects or may damage fertility or an unborn child.
Ours is not an easy certification to pass. Quite a few foams fail and must be reformulated to meet our rigorous standards. We’re proud of that. Foams must be CertiPUR-US-certified twice in the first year and annually thereafter.
It doesn’t stop there. Certified foams are then subject to random verification testing, which means we make on-site visits to foam manufacturing plants to pull foam samples and test them. We perform this spot-checking at our own expense on a significant percentage of our participating companies each year, just to keep everyone honest.
Our Technical Guidelines are a “living” document, which means they are updated as science dictates. During our 13-year history, they have been updated about once a year and always based on evidence-based science.
What’s more, every manufacturer and retailer listed in our directory must agree to our Terms of Use (the focus of our terms is making accurate claims) and must have their supplier provide verification that they are indeed purchasing certified foam.
Our online directory (which I am excited to say is going to be greatly improved early next year) provides yet another layer of protection for consumers. If a company uses our name or logo and is not listed in our directory, we do not have verification that they are using CertiPUR-US certified foam in their products.
There’s a button on our website that encourages consumers to report misuse—we try very hard to follow up on every lead!
Although some people assume our program is U.S. only, we decided early on that would not be in the best of interest of consumers. Whether they are aware of it or not, Americans often purchase products made with components manufactured in other countries and the CertiPUR-US program has raised the bar for foam or products containing foam being imported into this country.