prEN 17770

Organic and organo-mineral fertilizers - Determination of the total content of specific elements by ICP-AES after digestion by aqua regia prEN 17770

Publication date:   Jan 22, 2026

Scope

This document specifies a method for the determination of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni)), boron (B), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), sulfur (S) and sodium (Na) in aqua regia digests of organic, organo-mineral fertilizers, and their fertilizing product blends using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES).
It is applicable and validated for several types of matrices as indicated in Annex A.
This document is applicable to the component materials “by-products”, when used as components of fertilizing products, as well as the fertilizing products 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 fertilizers, organo-mineral fertilizers 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. Variations in analytical methods for fertilizing product blends can lead to differing results as some components or matrix interactions can affect the outcome. Validation procedures have shown that developed standard methods are robust and reliable across diverse product compositions, but possible interferences and unexpected results when analysing fertilizing product blends are possible.
This method is applicable to aqua regia digests prepared according to prEN 17768.
NOTE Alternatively, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) can be used for the determination of the elements in the aqua regia digests if the user proves that the method gives the same results.

Related legislation

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