What's Inside Your "Down" Bedding?
About the Law Label For Down Bedding
The Law Label is a disclosure label required by law and must be attached to all down bedding, ie; down comforters, down 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 bedding, the exact minimum percentage of down and/or feather used. This is the best way to determine the contents of the product you intend to buy. Don't depend on advertising and packaging. The United States law label for down comforters, pillows & featherbeds should also have a statement regarding the content of the fabric, such as "100% Cotton".
What The Law Label Tells You
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. Duck down is more expensive than goose or duck feather. Feathers do not insulate nearly as well as down. More about down, feathers & fill power.
Since all down products contain at least some trace of feathers and fiber, regulations require manufacturers to tell you the minimum percentage of down cluster in the product. For White Goose Down, as long as it contains at least 75% white goose down cluster, the product may be labeled as "White Goose Down."
For the law label, "Down" is defined as the whole, unbroken down cluster. For products that are filled with only down & no feather, "Fiber", which is not specifically named on the law label, refers to pieces of damaged or broken down cluster or feather that is mixed in with the whole unbroken down clusters. This "fiber" is the difference between the "minimum" percentage of down stated on the law label, and 100%.
For example, a Law Label for a product filled with goose down, and no feather, might state a "minimum 85% goose down". This means that a minimum 85% of the goose down in that product is whole, unbroken goose down cluster, the remaining 15% would be fiber.
A Law Label for a product filled with a blend of down and feathers might state, for example, 80% down, 20% feather. This will vary of course, depending on the actual percentage of down and feather fill.
100% Goose Down?
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 even the purest down fill. Given this fact, it is not technically correct to state that a product contains "100% Down" for even the finest goose down.
About Plumeria Bay® Goose Down
A Minimum 90% White Goose Down 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".
A down comforter or pillow filled with a minimum 90% down cluster (and no feather fill stated) would have such a small trace amount of feather and fiber that it would be virtually undetectable.
The Law Label does not allow disclosure of where the down comes from, or the type of goose down used, in the All NEW MATERIAL section of the Law Label. For example, we can say "Goose Down", but we cannot say "Hungarian Goose Down".
This type of language is considered to be "marketing" language, and is prohibited - in the ALL NEW MATERIALS section of the law label.
Sometimes, What The Law Label Doesn't Tell You Is As Important As What It Does
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 cleanliness of the down. In the end, it is important that you purchase only from a manufacturer that you trust.