Are EPPO complaint trials required, and what is the CEN TS 17700?

CEN TS 17700 is a family of technical specifications developed by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). It lays down requirements for Plant Biostimulant claims and how to prove them. It contains 5 parts: 

• CEN/TS 17700-1:2022 ‘Biostimulant – Claims – Part 1: General principles principes’
  • This is where you will find general requirments always applicable include replicate numbers, number of trials and the statistical analysis requirement. 
  • In the subsequent 4 TS documents you will find requirements on how to formulate each specific claim and how to prove it: 
• CEN/TS 17700-2 ‘Biostimulant – Claims – Part 2: Nutrient use efficiency’
• CEN/TS 17700-3:2022 ‘Biostimulant – Claims – Part 3: Tolerance to abiotic stress’
• CEN/TS 17700-4:2022 ‘Biostimulant – Claims – Part 4: Determination of quality traits’
• CEN/TS 17700-5:2022 ‘Biostimulant – Claims – Part 5: Nutrient availability in the soil or rhizosphere’

In future the CEN TS 17700 will become an EU standard and provide the presumption of conformity. 

CEN Standards are copyright protected. Unfortunately thus you must buy them from an official EU standards body. The choice of body is irrelevant as the standards content is the same. 

Thus it is worthwhile looking into bodies with lower costs such as EVS:https://www.evs.ee/en/search?OnlySuggestedProducts=false&query=CEN+TS+17700&Search=Search

CEN TS 17700 is not mandatory. However if it is not used equivalance to the CEN TS 17700 must be proven with the chosen standard or methodology. EPPO compliant trials are not required but can be used to substitute the CEN TS 17700 as decided by the Notified Body Coordination Group.