Parents ask what is actually in the mat, which is a fair question. A play mat spends its life under a baby who dribbles on it and lies face down on it for months. "Safe" is only a word. Below are the numbers behind the word: what an independent laboratory looked for in our silicone leather, what it found, and where the honest limits are.
Everything here comes from third-party testing of the material every Studio Huske mat is made from. Nothing on this page is a marketing claim. Where a result is less than ideal, we have left it in.
Tested for, not detected
Two of these matter more than the rest, because they are the substances foam and vinyl mats get criticised for.
Formamide
Formamide is the softening agent associated with EVA foam puzzle mats, the interlocking kind that got pulled from shelves in several European countries. Our material is not a foam and does not use it. Result: not detected.
Phthalate plasticisers
Phthalates are what makes vinyl floppy, and they are the reason a lot of parents avoid vinyl entirely. All six tested for (DEHP, DBP, BBP, DINP, DIDP, DNOP) came back not detected.
Everything else that came back clean
- Lead: not detected (below 10 mg/kg)
- Cadmium: not detected (below 5 mg/kg)
- All eight hazardous heavy metals: lead, cadmium, barium, selenium, chromium, antimony, arsenic and mercury. None detected.
- 23 carcinogenic aromatic amines from azo dyes: none detected. These are the dye breakdown products regulated in children's textiles.
- Flame retardants (TDBPP, PentaBDE, OctaBDE): not detected. The material is self-extinguishing on its own, so there is no chemical treatment to add.
- Dimethyl fumarate: not detected
- N,N-dimethylformamide: not detected
- 2-ethylhexoic acid: not detected
- Butyl hydroxytoluene: not detected
- 2-methoxyethanol: not detected
The material was also produced and certified under OEKO-TEX Standard 100/1, written as OEKO-TEX 100/1. Class 1 is the strictest of the four classes and covers articles for babies and toddlers, the things a child can put in their mouth.
Detected, and far below the limit
Three results were not zero. We would rather show you the gap than round it away.
| What was measured | Found | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Toluene (a VOC, emissions test) | 0.025 mg/m2h | 1.40 mg/m2h |
| Formaldehyde (a VOC, emissions test) | 0.007 mg/m2h | 0.50 mg/m2h |
| pH of the surface | 6.2 | 4.0 to 7.5 |
Toluene came in at roughly one fifty-sixth of the permitted level and formaldehyde at about one seventieth. The pH of 6.2 sits close to the pH of skin, which is what you want against a baby's cheek.
What about PFAS
PFAS are the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances behind many waterproof finishes. A customer recently asked whether the mats are PFAS-free, so here is the honest position.
For a long time the honest position was that I held no test data. That changed in August 2026, when I obtained the full laboratory reports behind the fabric’s OEKO-TEX Standard 100, Class 1 certification. In the most recent testing round the fabric was independently tested for total fluorine and more than 30 individual PFAS compounds, none detected, and no individual PFAS compound has been detected across two years of reports. The water resistance comes from the silicone coating itself, not from a fluorochemical finish. No test can prove an absolute, so I still won’t call the mats PFAS-free.
One more thing worth saying plainly. The testing is done on the finished coated fabric, and the certification body chooses which colour is sampled, not me. Two rounds have been run, in 2024 and 2025, on a different colour each time. Every mat in the range is the same fabric, the same polyester base with the same silicone coating on both sides, and the pigment is the only thing that changes between colours. Pigment is also the only part of the recipe that could differ chemically from one colour to the next, so it is a fair thing to ask about. The manufacturer tells me that no fluorochemical finish is applied at any stage, to any colour, and that the base cloth is bought in without one. That is their account of their own process, not a laboratory result. So the honest scope is this: the laboratory tested specific samples, not every colour I sell.
The full numbers, including the one reading that was not a clean zero, are in the PFAS lab results article.
Is it food grade
No, and I won't dress that up. There is no food-contact certification for the mat or for the coated fabric, and the manufacturer has confirmed that. What OEKO-TEX Standard 100/1 does cover is worth knowing. Class 1 is the baby tier, tested for harmful substances at the strictest limits, and it includes a saliva test that simulates sucking and chewing. Combined with a non-porous surface that nothing soaks into, that speaks to a lot of what parents asking this question are worried about. It still isn't a food-contact certification, and I won't call it one.
How it holds up
Safety is one half of the question. The other half is whether the mat survives a toddler, because a mat you replace every year is not a good mat.
- Abrasion: more than 20,000 rub cycles before the surface gives way. Crawling knees and dragged chair legs.
- Water: resistance above 1,000 cmH2O and a water pressure rating of 710 kPa. Milk and spilled soup sit on the surface rather than soaking in.
- Tensile strength: 739 N across the weft, 876 N across the warp. It does not tear from a pulled corner.
- Flammability: under California TB 117, all 20 samples did not ignite. Zero after-flame, zero after-glow.
- Colour: grades of 4 to 5 (on a 5 point scale) for washing, rubbing, water and light. The colour stays where it is.
- Heat and humidity: 336 hours at 70C and 95% humidity, which is a jungle in a box. No delamination, no visible change. This is the test that tells you the silicone will not peel away from the fabric in year three.
What stains, and what does not
An independent laboratory left six household substances on the material for 24 hours, then washed it off and graded what was left from 1 to 5, where 5 means no trace remains.
| Substance | Grade after 24 hours |
|---|---|
| Chilli oil | 5.0 |
| Soy sauce | 5.0 |
| Coffee | 5.0 |
| Poster paint | 5.0 |
| Meat sauce | 4.5 |
| Curry | 4.0 |
Curry is the honest limit. Turmeric pigment is stubborn on almost every surface in your house, and if it sits on the mat for a full day it can leave a faint shadow. Wiped up the same day, it lifts. If a mark does stay, a few hours of direct sunlight will usually fade it, since sunlight breaks down the pigment without harming the silicone.
Why you see results and not certificates
You may have noticed there are no scanned certificates on this page. Here is the reason, plainly.
Our mats are made in Korea by a manufacturing partner whose identity is commercially confidential, and the test reports carry their name on every page. Publishing the documents would publish them. So we publish the findings instead, in full, including the results we do not top.
If you are a retailer, a nursery or a clinic and need certification confirmed for your own records, send a request through the contact form and it will be handled directly.
See the mats
If you would like to see the mats these numbers belong to, browse the play mats.