About the Law Label For Down Bedding
The Law Label is a disclosure label required by law and must be attached to our down comforters, pillows and featherbeds. It can only be removed by you, the consumer.
The label must tell you, in language defined by law, the type of filling, and in the case of down comforters, pillows and featherbeds, the exact minimum percentage of down and feathers used. This is the best way to determine the exact contents of the product you intend to buy. Don't depend on advertising and packaging.
Goose down, duck down, feathers and fiber. To read the law label you should understand that there are several types of fill that, under the law, can be labeled "Down". Some manufacturers take advantage if this.
Down is the soft, fluffy cluster taken from the undercoating of geese or ducks. Goose down is much more expensive than duck down. Both goose and duck down is much more expensive than feather. Feathers are relatively inexpensive, they are heavy and do not insulate nearly as well as down. Fiber refers to pieces of damaged or broken down cluster or feather.
Down, Feather and Fiber are all present to some degree in products sold as "Down". This is because the mechanical process used to sort down from feathers is not perfect. Some feathers and fiber, in a trace amount, will always remain in the purest down fill. Given this fact, it is inaccurate (and not legal) to state that a product contains "All Down," "Pure Down," or "100% Down." If a sales person uses these terms to describe their product, please raise an eyebrow.
Since all down products contain some trace of feathers and fiber, regulations require manufacturers to tell you the minimum percentage of down cluster in the product. As long as it contains at least 75% white goose down cluster, the product may be labeled as "White Goose Down." 75% down is about average for most down products offered for sale in the United States these days.
Our typical 850 fill power down comforter or pillow would be labeled as follows:
ALL NEW MATERIAL
CONSISTING OF
WHITE GOOSE DOWN
(minimum 90 percent goose down)
This product contains about 20 percent more white goose down cluster than the 75% minimum that is required by law to be for a product to be classified as "White Goose Down". Any product with 90% down cluster would have such a small trace amount of feather and fiber that it would be virtually undetectable.
The label for our 900 Fill Power German white goose down states a minimum 95% goose down. That's about as pure as hand sorted goose down can get.
What doesn't appear on the Law Label? Many states do not require that the color of the down or the type of bird be disclosed. For example, many states allow the use of the term “White Down” without specifying if it is goose or duck down. Many states also allow the term “Goose Down” without disclosing if it is gray or white.
If the law label does not specifically say "White
Goose Down" then the product is most likely filled with inexpensive gray down or duck down.
There are many factors that determine the quality of a down or feather fill that are not addressed by the law label, including the cleaning and sanitization process. In the end, it is important that you purchase only from a manufacturer that you trust.