Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

We herewith inform you about updates and clarifications in the ISCC System. Please share this information with all relevant members of staff.

1. New Guidance Document for POME Oil and EFB Oil

We are happy to announce that ISCC has developed a comprehensive guidance document for the certification of waste and residues from palm oil mills, i.e. palm oil mill effluent (POME) and empty palm fruit bunches (EFBs). This guidance document was developed with the active support of an expert working group in the framework of the Regional Stakeholder Committee Southeast Asia. The guidance document is published in the public consultation section of the ISCC website and can be downloaded here. ISCC would highly appreciate to receive further stakeholder feedback via the contact form on our website.

Please note that the guidance document and the processes described therein may be applied with immediate effect (on a voluntary basis). ISCC will announce from which date the guidance document must be applied on a mandatory basis, after the public consultation is finished.

2. Definition POME Oil and EFB Oil

We herewith point out that the following definitions for POME oil and EFB oil shall apply from now on (please also find further information in the guidance document for the certification of waste and residues from palm oil mills):

• POME oil: POME is the unavoidable wastewater arising from palm oil production at a palm oil mill. Oil that is recovered from POME shall be referred to as POME oil. Oil which is not recovered from the wastewater of a palm oil mill cannot be labelled as POME oil.
• EFB oil: EFBs are the remains of the palm fresh fruit bunches after the fruit has been removed (“stripped”) for oil pressing. Residual oil can be recovered from “EFB liquor”, the wastewater from EFB treatment. Oil that is recovered from EFBs at the palm oil mill shall be referred to as “EFB oil”. Oil which is not recovered from EFBs cannot be labelled as EFB oil.

These definitions have also been added to the ISCC EU list of materials. The updated ISCC EU list of materials (as of 20 April 2021) is available here in the client section of the ISCC website (login required).

3. Incorrect Labelling or False Declaration of POME Oil or EFB Oil

Please note the following requirements as specified in ISCC document 203 “Traceability and Chain of Custody:

Page 14: “If the traceability is based on mass balance, the Sustainability Declaration does not necessarily reflect the product physically delivered. In any case, Sustainability Declarations only refer to the sustainable amount of a delivery, i.e. it is not allowed to issue a Sustainability Declaration for a mix of sustainable and non-sustainable material. The Sustainability Declaration should reflect at least the product group of the physically delivered product. A product group is defined by similar physical or chemical characteristics, heating values and/or conversion factors (i.e. soybean is a different product group than rapeseed).”

Page 40: „A transfer of credits should reflect the products or product groups and the respective sustainability characteristics. It is not possible to transfer credits from materials that were certified according to the ISCC EU waste and residues process to materials that were certified according to the regular ISCC certification process. It is also not possible to transfer credits if the respective materials have different conversion factors. This particularly applies if additional processing steps are required.“

Please note that POME oil and EFB oil are a different products / product groups than crude palm oil (CPO) or refined palm oil. Furthermore, POME oil and EFB oil are certified according to the ISCC EU waste and residues process. This means that a credit transfer from POME oil or EFB oil to e.g. CPO or to refined palm oil is not allowed. Labelling or selling virgin vegetable oil as POME oil or as EFB oil is a critical and fraudulent violation of ISCC requirements! In case you are aware of such practices in the market, please do not hesitate to inform ISCC accordingly via our online complaint form.