Eco tableware certifications: FDA, LFGB, BPI, EN13432, FSC
Eco tableware certifications come in three families, and mixing them up is the most common mistake buyers make. Some cover food contact, some cover composting, and some cover where the fibre came from. Knowing which family a mark belongs to tells you what question it answers, and what it does not.
The short answer
- Food contact: FDA (United States) and LFGB (Germany and the wider EU).
- Compostability: BPI (United States) and EN 13432 (Europe).
- Fibre sourcing: FSC, for responsibly sourced wood and fibre.
Food contact: FDA and LFGB
These are the marks that matter most for anything a customer eats or drinks from. The FDA framework governs food-contact materials in the United States, and LFGB is the German regulation that much of Europe buys against. They test that the material is safe for direct food contact at the temperatures it will meet, and they are the first thing to check for a programme shipping to either market.
If a piece is certified for food contact, you can ask for the report that says so, for that specific piece and that specific test. The test also matters at temperature: a piece rated for hot filling is a different claim from one rated for cold, and the report should say which. This family is about safety while the piece is in use, so it has nothing to say about what happens after the meal. Keep it separate in your mind from the compostability marks below.
Compostability: BPI and EN 13432
These cover what happens after use. EN 13432, the European standard, requires a material to disintegrate, biodegrade and pass an ecotoxicity test within an industrial composting cycle. BPI is the North American programme that certifies products to the ASTM standards for compostability. Both are piece-specific and both refer to industrial composting, so the honest claim is always tied to the standard and the facility, not to a garden heap.
The practical point for a buyer is scope. A compostability mark on a cup tells you nothing about the lid or the plate, because certification follows the product that was tested. Ask per piece, and ask whether the claim is industrial or home composting. The compostable vs biodegradable guide unpacks the difference in detail.
Fibre sourcing: FSC
FSC, the Forest Stewardship Council, certifies that fibre is sourced from responsibly managed forests. It applies to wood-based and some non-wood fibre chains, and it is the mark that speaks to the origin of the material rather than to its performance in service. For buyers building a sustainability story, FSC answers the where-did-the-fibre-come-from question that food-contact and compostability marks do not.
It is worth asking how the fibre chain works for your specific supplier. Our pieces are moulded from sugarcane bagasse, the fibre left after sugar extraction, which is a by-product stream rather than a primary harvest; the bagasse guide covers where the material comes from. That origin story is often more useful to a buyer than a logo, because it is specific and it is checkable.
How to read eco tableware certifications
Certifications are always piece-specific, so the right move is to ask per piece and per market:
- Which market? FDA for the United States, LFGB for Europe, or both.
- Which claim? Food contact, compostability, or sourcing, each with its own report.
- Which pieces? A certificate covers a product, not a catalogue, so confirm the exact formats you need.
A worked example makes it concrete. A programme shipping lidded bowls to a supermarket in Germany would want LFGB for food contact and EN 13432 for compostability, confirmed for the bowl and the lid separately, because each is a distinct product in the test. Asking for those documents by name is faster than any long email, and a supplier who produces them without a fuss has done this before.
Tell us the pieces and the destination market and we will confirm which standards apply to your order and share what we hold. A manufacturer who cannot answer per piece is describing an intention, not a certified material. To see how the pieces perform in service, the material page and samples are the fastest route.
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Send the pieces and the destination, and we will confirm which standards apply to your order. Ask for certificates →