FprEN 18280

Soil improvers and growing media - Enumeration of Escherichia coli FprEN 18280

Publication date:   Jan 8, 2026

Scope

This document specifies a method for the enumeration of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in soil improvers and growing media. This document is applicable to material in solid form (including pre-shaped growing media) and liquid form.
This document is applicable to fertilizing product blends, where a blend is a mix of two or more fertilizing products belonging to the categories of fertilizers, liming material, soil improvers, growing media, inhibitors and plant biostimulants, and where soil improvers and/or growing media comprise the highest percentage in the blend by mass or volume, or in the case of liquid form by dry mass. If soil improvers and/or growing media are not the components with the highest percentage in the blend, the European Standard relevant to the component with the highest percentage in the blend applies. In case a blend is composed of fertilizing products in equal quantity, the user of the standard decides which standard to apply.
This document does not apply to strains of E. coli which do not grow at 44 °C ± 1 °C and, in particular, those that are β-D-glucuronidase-negative, such as E. coli O157, which will not be detected. Some strains of Shigella spp. and Salmonella spp. within the family Enterobacteriaceae can also show β-D-glucuronidase activity at 44 °C ± 1 °C.
NOTE 1 A soil improver or a growing medium consists of a single bulky (volume-building) component or a mix of bulky (volume-building) components (for example peat, wood fibres, coconut coir, compost, expanded perlite).
NOTE 2 This method has been validated in an interlaboratory study with specific products (peat, biowaste compost, green compost and solid digestate) that were present on the market during the study (Annex C).

Related legislation

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