Biorationals

Date: 9 April 2020

Biorationals are not a regulatory defined category in EU, similar to biopesticides for example. Rather, in accordance with the definition of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) the term biorational is often used to describe a “broad range of low environmental risk substances and products that are typically biologically-derived or, if synthetic, structurally similar and functionally identical to a biologically occurring material”. Thus, biorationals include biopesticides as well as non-pesticidal substances and products such as biostimulants.

Whereat in EU, the term biopesticide has no regulatory definition, since entry into force of REGULATION (EU) No 2019/1009, for biostimulants an EU harmonised definition exists. According to this new regulation, biostimulants in the EU regulatory framework are defined as “an EU fertilising product, the function of which is to stimulate plant nutrition processes independently of the product’s nutrient content with the sole aim of improving one or more of the following characteristics of the plant or the plant rhizosphere: (a) nutrient use efficiency, (b) tolerance to abiotic stress, (c) quality traits, or (d) availability of confined nutrients in the soil or rhizosphere”.

Contrary to non-EU regulatory frameworks such as, for example, in the US, the EU Plant Protection Products REGULATION (EC) No 1107/2009 does not define biopesticides as a specific substance or product category or class. In fact, the EU Plant Protection Product Regulation differentiates between basic substances, low risk substances and conventional substances and products irrespective of their biological, mineral or chemical origin.

Lars Huber