EUDR, the responsibilities of food industry and retail

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, the European Union Deforestation Regulation or EUDR, applies from 30 December 2026. Businesses established in the European Union that buy, process or resell cocoa, coffee, soya, palm oil, rubber, beef, wood, paper and board therefore have less than four months to establish which role they hold in the supply chains of each material, which obligations follow from it and how to organise compliance.

The date of 30 June 2027 applies only to natural persons and to micro and small undertakings established as such by 31 December 2024, and it does not apply in any event to the products covered by the Annex to Regulation (EU) No 995/2010, that is wood, paper and board (Reg. EU 2023/1115, Article 38).

The rules in force do not coincide with those of 2023. Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, as reported, has rewritten definitions, obligations and dates of application, and the text consolidated as at 26 December 2025 is now the only useful reference. On 4 May 2026 the European Commission closed the simplification review provided for by the regulation, stating that it did not consider it appropriate to propose further amendments to the current text.

Scope, objectives, basic criteria

The EUDR pursues two declared objectives: to minimise the Union’s contribution to deforestation and forest degradation worldwide, and to reduce the Union’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and global biodiversity loss (Reg. EU 2023/1115, Article 1.1).

To that end three basic criteria are laid down: ‘relevant commodities and relevant products shall not be placed or made available on the market or exported’, unless they are:

• deforestation-free;
• produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production;
• covered by a due diligence statement or by a simplified declaration (Article 3).

The three conditions are cumulative, and the failure of a single one is enough to make the product non-marketable. The assessment relates to the geolocated plots of land of production and concerns deforestation or forest degradation occurring after 31 December 2020: a product is deforestation-free where the commodity it contains (or with which it was made) comes from plots that have not been cleared after that date, and where the wood it contains was harvested without inducing degradation of the forest of origin thereafter (Article 2, points 13, 27 and 28). What happened earlier is irrelevant: a forest converted to arable land in 2019 may continue to supply the Union market, while the conversion of the same land in 2021 permanently excludes any production from it, since deforestation established on a plot automatically disqualifies all commodities and products originating from it (Article 9.1, point ‘d’).

The scope of the EUDR is defined by heading of the combined nomenclature, according to an exhaustive list. A product that does not appear in Annex I therefore remains outside the rules under consideration even where it contains a relevant commodity, as the European Commission has confirmed in its guidance (third edition, 13 July 2026) and in the FAQ (version 5, April 2026).

Packaging materials deserve particular attention:

• wooden packaging accompanying another product, that is pallets, cases and crates, is expressly excluded, but the exclusion is placed under heading 4415 alone;
• no exclusion is provided for paper and board, which remain relevant products as they fall within Chapters 47 and 48 of the combined nomenclature;
• printed matter on paper has instead been excluded by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, which deleted from Annex I the entry referring to Chapter 49, that is to the products of the publishing and printing industries. Books, newspapers, catalogues and package leaflets therefore remain outside the perimeter, while cartons, boxes and other containers under heading 4819 and labels of all kinds, whether or not printed, under heading 4821 fall within it.

The European Commission, by delegated act of 13 July 2026, has revised the list in Annex I to the EUDR, with:

• the addition of extracts, essences and concentrates of coffee, such as instant coffee (heading 2101 11), of frozen cattle tongues (heading ex 0206 21) and of a group of palm oil derivatives hitherto excluded, among them hydrogenated or otherwise chemically modified vegetable fats and oils and crude glycerol (headings 1516 20, 1518 and 1520), fatty alcohols (headings 2905 16, 2905 17 and 2905 19), lecithins (heading 2923 90) and soap (headings 3401 11 and 3401 20). Those additions apply from 30 December 2027;
• the exclusion of cattle hides, skins and leather, retreaded tyres and vehicle seats.

That act nevertheless remains subject to scrutiny by the European Parliament and the Council and does not appear, to date, to have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The four distinct roles in the supply chains

The regulation defines four roles, and attaches different responsibilities to each. The distinguishing criterion is the position with respect to the first placing on the market of the Union, since due diligence falls on whoever carries it out, while downstream only documentary and information obligations remain:

• the operator is ‘any natural or legal person who, in the course of a commercial activity, places relevant products on the market or exports them, excluding downstream operators’ (EUDR, Article 2.15). Placing on the market is the first making available in the Union, irrespective of the origin of the goods: it covers both imports from third countries and the first sale of ‘Made in EU’ products. In the latter case the operator is as a rule the primary producer. To give some examples, the livestock keeper who sells live cattle (headings 0102 21 and 0102 29), the agricultural holding that sells soya beans (heading 1201), the forest owner who sells roundwood (heading 4403);
• the downstream operator is ‘any natural or legal person who, in the course of a commercial activity, places on the market or exports relevant products made using relevant products, all of which are covered by a due diligence statement or by a simplified declaration’ (Article 2.15b). It is the figure introduced by the 2025 reform, and most of the processing industry established in the Union falls within it: the slaughterhouse that buys live animals and sells carcasses, the confectionery industry that buys cocoa paste and cocoa butter and sells chocolate;
• the trader is ‘any person in the supply chain other than the operator or downstream operator who, in the course of a commercial activity, makes relevant products available on the market’ (Article 2.17). Making available covers supply ‘for distribution, consumption or use’, whether in return for payment or free of charge (Article 2.18). It covers whoever resells the product without changing its customs heading, such as the fattening farm that resells live animals;
• the micro or small primary operator is the farmer or livestock keeper, a natural person or a micro or small undertaking, established in a country classified as low risk, who places on the market products that it has itself grown, harvested or raised (Article 2.15a). All Member States are classified as low risk by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093, which lists in its Annex the low-risk and the high-risk countries, while the standard risk level applies to all the others.

The qualification depends on the position actually held with respect to each flow of goods: the same undertaking may be an operator on one supply line and a trader on another. The qualification of downstream operator, it should be noted, presupposes that all inputs are covered by a due diligence statement: where the upstream supplier has not complied, the processor falls back into the position of operator.

The responsibilities of the different operators

The operator’s due diligence

Due diligence does not fall on the importer alone: it is owed by whoever first places the product on the Union market, and goods obtained within the Union are subject to the same requirements as imported ones. The livestock keeper who sells the animals, the agricultural holding that sells soya, the forest owner who sells roundwood therefore collect the information under Article 9.1 on their own plots and establishments, transmit their geolocation and submit the statement before the sale.

For Union production the legality requirement refers to the legislation of the Member State. What matters are the rules ‘concerning the legal status of the area of production’ on land use rights, environmental protection, forest management and biodiversity conservation where connected with wood harvesting, third parties’ rights and workers’ rights, human rights, free, prior and informed consent, tax, anti-corruption, trade and customs legislation (Article 2, point 40).

The risk assessment measures the risk that products are non-compliant, according to the fourteen criteria of Article 10.2, among them the risk classification of the country of production, the prevalence of deforestation, the complexity of the supply chain and the risk of circumvention or of mixing with products of unknown origin. Placing on the market is precluded where the assessment does not reveal no or only a negligible risk: in that case risk mitigation is required, through requests for further information, independent surveys or audits; undertakings other than SMEs must also appoint a compliance officer at management level and put in place an independent audit function (Articles 10 and 11).

A lighter regime applies to commodities produced in low-risk countries, and it therefore covers all Union production. The operator is exempt from risk assessment and mitigation, but not from collecting the information nor from the statement, and must have previously ascertained that the risk of circumvention of the regulation, or of mixing with products of unknown origin or originating in standard-risk or high-risk countries, is negligible, accounting for this to the competent authorities on request. The benefit falls away where relevant information arises, including substantiated concerns from third parties, and may be withdrawn as a penalty in the event of a serious infringement or of repeated infringements (Articles 13 and 25.2, point ‘f’). Timber covered by a valid FLEGT licence, issued under an operational licensing scheme pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005, is deemed to comply with the legality requirement (Article 10.3).

Stocks deserve a separate check. 

The regulation does not apply to relevant products ‘produced before’ 29 June 2023, the date of its entry into force (Article 1.2). Commodities harvested, obtained or raised before that date therefore remain outside the perimeter even if sold after 30 December 2026, with the sole exception of wood and wood products covered by the Annex to Regulation (EU) No 995/2010, which are subject to the latter until 31 December 2029 and, thereafter, to Article 3 of the EUDR (Article 37).

The obligation of greatest interest to the downstream chain is that of communication: the operator transmits to downstream operators and to traders the reference numbers of the statements associated with the products (Article 4.7). Without those numbers, the other operators in the chain cannot comply.

Food industry

The industry established in the Union takes on different roles, depending on the origin of its supplies and the customs classification of its finished products:

• where the finished product remains within Annex I – e.g. chocolate and preparations containing cocoa (heading 1806), soya oil and oilcake, beef (headings ex 0201 and ex 0202), preparations of beef (heading ex 1602 50) – and the raw materials have been purchased from suppliers established in the Union, already covered by a statement, the undertaking is a downstream operator, with only the documentary obligations set out in the table. This is the position of the slaughterhouse that sells the quarters and of the industry that turns them into minced meat, burgers or preserves. Where the same undertaking imports directly cocoa, coffee or meat from a third country, on that flow it is instead an operator, with full due diligence and a statement;
• where the finished product falls outside Annex I the undertaking takes on no qualification in respect of it. This is the case of bread, pastry and biscuit products (heading 1905, which the combined nomenclature describes as covering products ‘whether or not containing cocoa’), pasta (heading 1902), ice cream (heading 2105) and salted, dried or smoked beef (heading 0210), from bresaola to carne salada. For soya, since Annex I stops at headings 1201, 1208 10, 1507 and 2304, preparations based on soya protein such as plant-based burgers, soya drinks and soya lecithin also remain outside. Exposure then shifts entirely to purchases: to relevant commodities imported directly, in respect of which the undertaking is an operator, and to paper and board packaging, in respect of which the origins must be verified and the reference numbers of the upstream statements systematically requested from suppliers. The exclusion check must be carried out reference by reference.

Distribution

Distribution which resells relevant products, from chocolate bars to coffee, from beef to articles of wood, paper and board, qualifies as a trader: sale to the final consumer constitutes making available on the market, and therefore falls within the definition. The trader that is not an SME is subject to a reinforced responsibility. Where it becomes aware of information indicating that a product is non-compliant it immediately informs the competent authorities and, in the presence of substantiated concerns, verifies that due diligence was exercised and that the risk is null or negligible: ‘they shall not place or make available on the market or export relevant products unless the verification demonstrates no or only a negligible risk of non-compliance’ (Article 5.6). The power of suspension thus derives directly from the regulation.

Two situations move distribution from the qualification of trader to that of operator: direct import from third countries and the role of first person established in the Union. The question of own-brand products must therefore be examined flow by flow.

Checks

Checks on operators are based on the examination of the due diligence system and of the documentation, may be extended to chemical, genetic or anatomical analyses on the materials, and may include the use of Earth observation data from the Copernicus programme (Article 18).

The annual minimum thresholds are set according to the risk classification of the country of production: 9% of operators, of non-SME downstream operators and of non-SME traders, as well as 9% of the quantities, for high-risk countries; 3% for standard-risk countries; 1% for low-risk ones (Article 16, paragraphs 8-10). The targets must be met separately for each relevant commodity and are calculated on the number of persons that operated in the previous year, as well as on quantities where applicable (Article 16.11). Checks are as a rule carried out without prior warning (Article 16.13).

In the event of non-compliance the competent authorities impose corrective action, ranging from formal rectification to immediate recall of the product (Article 24), and may adopt interim measures including seizure and suspension of marketing (Article 23).

Penalties

The regulation does not define penalties, but prescribes their minimum content to the Member States. They must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and include fines proportionate to the environmental damage and to the value of the goods, calculated so as to deprive infringers of the economic benefits derived from their infringements. For legal persons ‘the maximum amount of such a fine shall be at least 4 % of the … total annual Union-wide turnover’ of the operator, downstream operator or trader in the financial year preceding the fining decision (Article 25.2, point ‘a’).

These are accompanied by confiscation of the products and of the revenues, temporary exclusion for up to twelve months from public procurement and public funding, the temporary prohibition of marketing in the event of a serious infringement or of repeated infringements and the prohibition from exercising simplified due diligence (Article 25.2, points ‘b’ to ‘f’). The regulation does not provide for confiscation of equivalent value, which remains a matter for national law.

It should be borne in mind, however, that Directive (EU) 2024/1203 on the protection of the environment through criminal law, to be transposed by 21 May 2026, classifies as a criminal offence the placing or making available on the market and the export in breach of the prohibition laid down in Article 3 of the EUDR, except where the conduct concerns a negligible quantity (Dir. EU 2024/1203, Article 3.2, point ‘p’). Final judgments against legal persons are notified to the Commission within thirty days and published on its website, with the name of the undertaking, a summary of the facts and the amount of the penalty (Article 25.3).

In Italy

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (MASAF) has designated ICQRF as the competent authority for cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber and soya, and the Directorate-General for Mountain Economy and Forests for wood and wood-derived products.

The penalty regime has not yet been adopted. Law No 91 of 13 June 2025, the European delegation law 2024, conferred on the Government, in Article 26, the delegation to adapt national legislation to the EUDR. No legislative decree has so far been issued in implementation of that delegation.

In the other countries

The picture is similar among the main trading partners:

• in Germany the competent authority is the Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung. The implementing bill, which brings together the rules on deforestation-free products and the transposition of certain provisions of Directive (EU) 2024/1203, was approved by the Federal Government on 13 August 2026 and is not yet law;
• in France a joint competent authority has been designated, bringing together the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Ministry of Agriculture. No national text laying down penalties appears to have been published;
• in Spain the bill applying the EUDR and Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005, which establishes the FLEGT – Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade – licensing scheme for imports of timber into the Union, contains the penalty regime and was approved at first reading by the Council of Ministers on 17 June 2025, without having so far been approved by the Cortes;
• in the Netherlands supervision is entrusted to the Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit (NVWA), alongside customs for checks on goods entering and leaving. No national act laying down penalties appears to have been published;
• in Belgium supervision is entrusted to the Déforestation inspection unit of the Federal Environment Inspectorate, within the Federal Public Service for Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment. No specific penalty act appears to have been published.

The delay of national legislators exposes Member States to infringement proceedings for failure to fulfil obligations (TFEU, Article 258), since the EUDR requires them to lay down penalties and to notify them to the Commission (Article 25.1). None of this, however, relieves operators from complying with the EUDR requirements from 30 December 2026, nor the designated authorities from applying the corrective measures already laid down in the regulation.

Operational procedures

Our FARE (Food and Agriculture Requirements) team supports operators in the food, chemical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and in distribution, as well as importers and traders, in developing corporate guidelines and procedures apt to ensure full compliance of their operations with the EUDR requirements: from the survey of the scope by heading of the combined nomenclature and the determination of the qualification held on each flow, to the supplier qualification criteria and the adaptation of contracts, through to the supply-chain files, the registration in the information system where due and the training of the corporate functions concerned.

It is also suggested to consider the opportunity of embedding those procedures in the governance systems of individual organisations – following the logic adopted for the organisation and management models established to prevent the predicate offences of the corporate administrative liability introduced in Italy by legislative decree No 231 of 8 June 2001 – so as to mitigate the risk of significant contingent liabilities that may arise from the finding of infringements of the rules under consideration.

Conclusions

The steps the regulation requires cannot be improvised, unfortunately, and the technical lead times now overlap with the deadlines. The survey of products by customs heading requires the examination of every reference and of every packaging material. Supplier qualification and contractual clauses follow the contract renewal cycles, which are annual. And experience teaches that the first supplier unable to transmit a reference number is discovered at goods-in, often too late. It is time to move.

Dario Dongo

References

EU legislation

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093 of 22 May 2025 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards a list of countries that present a low or high risk of producing relevant commodities for which the relevant products do not comply with Article 3, point (a). OJ L, 2025/1093, 23.5.2025. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2025/1093/oj

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1565 of 13 July 2026 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084 as regards the submission of due diligence statements, simplified declarations for micro or small primary operators, contingency arrangements and other measures simplifying the use of the information system. OJ L, 2026/1565, 14.7.2026. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2026/1565/oj

Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. OJ C 202, 7.6.2016, p. 1. http://data.europa.eu/eli/treaty/tfeu_2016/oj

Council Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 of 20 December 2005 on the establishment of a FLEGT licensing scheme for imports of timber into the European Community. OJ L 347, 30.12.2005, p. 1. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2005/2173/oj

Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings. Consolidated text: 28/05/2024. http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2013/34/2024-05-28

Directive (EU) 2024/1203 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on the protection of the environment through criminal law and replacing Directives 2008/99/EC and 2009/123/EC. OJ L, 2024/1203, 30.4.2024. http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/1203/oj

Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the market. Consolidated text: 01/01/2020. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2010/995/2020-01-01

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010. Consolidated text: 26/12/2025. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1115/2025-12-26

Regulation (EU) 2024/3234 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2024 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 as regards provisions relating to the date of application. OJ L, 2024/3234, 23.12.2024. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/3234/oj

Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2025 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 as regards certain obligations of operators and traders. OJ L, 2025/2650, 23.12.2025. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/2650/oj

EU institutional documents

European Commission. (2026, 4 May). Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Simplification review on Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation and forest degradation (EUDR). COM(2026) 191 final. https://environment.ec.europa.eu/document/download/a3c5c3a0-232e-43c4-b0b8-1eecb1df45c7_en

European Commission. (2026, 13 July). Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) …/… of 13.7.2026 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the list of relevant commodities and relevant products. C(2026) 4920 final. https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-11910-2026-INIT/en/pdf

European Commission. (2026, 13 July). Commission Notice. Guidance Document for Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on Deforestation-Free Products (third edition). C(2026) 4972 final. https://green-forum.ec.europa.eu/document/download/030c9bf7-a935-4d4d-91c6-bbddd745c181_en

European Commission. (2026, 13 July). Commission updates product scope and tools to support EUDR. https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/commission-updates-product-scope-and-tools-support-eudr-2026-07-13_en

European Commission. (2026, April). Frequently Asked Questions. Implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (version 5). https://environment.ec.europa.eu/document/download/744919a7-8650-4850-89ad-a597268cd69e_en

European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment. (n.d.). Regulation on deforestation-free products. https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/forests/deforestation/regulation-deforestation-free-products_en

National institutional source

Bundesministerium für Landwirtschaft, Ernährung und Heimat. (2026, 13 August). Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Neuregelung des Rechts über entwaldungsfreie Produkte sowie zur Umsetzung von bestimmten Vorschriften der Richtlinie (EU) 2024/1203 über den strafrechtlichen Schutz der Umwelt. https://www.bmleh.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzestexte/DE/21-WP/gesetz-durchfuehrung-eudr.html

Decreto legislativo 8 giugno 2001, n. 231. Disciplina della responsabilità amministrativa delle persone giuridiche, delle società e delle associazioni anche prive di personalità giuridica, a norma dell’articolo 11 della legge 29 settembre 2000, n. 300. Normattiva. Testo vigente al: 08/09/2026. https://www.normattiva.it/atto/caricaDettaglioAtto?atto.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=2001-06-19&atto.codiceRedazionale=001G0293&tipoDettaglio=multivigenza

Legge 13 giugno 2025, n. 91. Delega al Governo per il recepimento delle direttive europee e l’attuazione di altri atti dell’Unione europea. Legge di delegazione europea 2024. Normattiva. Ultima versione consolidata: 10/07/2025. https://www.normattiva.it/atto/caricaDettaglioAtto?atto.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=2025-06-25&atto.codiceRedazionale=25G00097&tipoDettaglio=multivigenza

Ministère de la Transition écologique. (n.d.). Règlement européen contre la déforestation et la dégradation des forêts. https://www.deforestationimportee.ecologie.gouv.fr/reglement-europeen-contre-la-deforestation-et-la-degradation-des-forets/article/reglement-europeen-contre-la-deforestation-et-la-degradation-des-forets

Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico. (2025, 17 June). El Gobierno impulsa una nueva ley para garantizar productos libres de deforestación. https://www.miteco.gob.es/en/prensa/ultimas-noticias/2025/junio/el-gobierno-impulsa-una-nueva-ley-para-garantizar-productos-libr.html

Ministero dell’Agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste. (n.d.). ICQRF. Autorità competente incaricata dell’adempimento degli obblighi derivanti dal regolamento (UE) 2023/1115. https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/21570

Ministero dell’Agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste. (n.d.). Regolamento EUDR. https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/21552

Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit. (n.d.). EUDR – Ontbossingsverordening. https://www.nvwa.nl/onderwerpen/plant/eudr-ontbossingsverordening

Service public fédéral Santé publique, Sécurité de la Chaîne alimentaire et Environnement. (n.d.). Règlement EUDR (UE) 2023/1115. https://www.health.belgium.be/fr/organisation-politique/reglementation-documents-politique/reglement-eudr-ue-20231115

Dario Dongo

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Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.

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