Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies a method for extraction, separation, and determination of inorganic arsenic (iAs) in organic or organo-mineral fertilizers using anion-exchange high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or ion chromatography (IC) coupled to ICP-MS.

This document is applicable to fertilizing product blends where a blend is a mix of at least two of the following components: Fertilizers, Liming Materials, Soil Improvers, Growing Media, Inhibitors, Plant Biostimulants and where the following category organic fertilizer or organo- mineral fertilizer is the highest % in the blend by mass or volume, or in the case of liquid form by dry mass. If the organic fertilizer or the organo-mineral fertilizer is not the highest % in the blend, the European Standard for the highest % of the blend applies. In case a fertilizing product blend is composed of components in equal quantity, the user decides which standard to apply.

Purpose

Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 on fertilizing products includes requirements for organic and organo- mineral fertilizers. Appropriate methods are necessary to verify the conformity of CE-marked fertilizing products to the requirements of the Regulation.

The European Standard on “Organic and organo-mineral fertilizers - Determination of the inorganic arsenic content ” describes the test methods to be applied for verifying the conformity of organic and organo-mineral fertilizers with the requirements set out in Regulation (EU) 2019/1009. 

This method is intended to be referred to in the harmonized standard “Organic and Organo- mineral fertilizers – Determination of specific elements” in the framework of standardization request M/564.