Seed certification: England

Seed Certification is a quality assurance process which ensures that seeds are sufficiently pure, healthy, viable and correctly labelled. Seeds marketing is regulated and, for most agricultural and vegetable species, only seeds which have been certified may be sold.

• Introduction
• Technical requirements
• Customer Survey 2008-2009

Introduction

European Commission Directives - require that seed of the main agricultural, horticultural and vegetable species must be officially certified before marketing. The directives define specific standards under which seed must be marketed. Seed may not be marketed unless it is a species / variety on a National List or the EC Common Catalogue.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - operates schemes for the varietal certification of seed to encourage the use of seed of consistently high quality in participating countries. The Schemes are open to all Members of the Organisation, as well as to other States being members of the United Nations Organisation or its Specialised Agencies.

International Seed Testing Association - is responsible for the development of standard procedures for sampling and testing seeds and to promote uniform application of these procedures for evaluation of seeds moving in international trade. The secondary purpose of the Association is to actively promote research in all areas of seed science and technology.

UK certifying authorities:

• Fera - England and Wales
• Scottish Government - Scotland
• DARD - Northern Ireland

Technical requirements

Statutory Tetrazolium (STZ) Test - the Cereal Seed (England) Regulations 2002 (as amended) permit all species and categories of cereal seed to be officially certified on the basis of a Statutory Tetrazolium (STZ) Test. The STZ must be done on an official sample drawn from a seed lot by a licensed seed sampler. The test may be done at an OSTS or by an authorised LSTS.

Moisture Testing - all seed lots of cereal and beet seed entered for certification require a moisture test to have been completed. Details of the moisture standards are provided in the individual regulations.

Early Movement - seed may be moved prior to being officially certified for early movement and marketed before the results of the official germination test are available. A satisfactory official purity result must have been completed before seed can be early moved.

Early Multiplication - allows for seed to be certified and progressed through the multiplication categories enabling seed stocks to be built up prior to National Listing. No marketing must take place until the variety has been added to a National list or the EC Common Catalogue.

Customer Survey

The results of the 2008-2009 customer survey have been published.

See also:

• Information Letters
• Seed Certification Contacts
• Plant Varieties & Seeds - Customer services