EUDR Series: A close look at the requirements for filing a Due Diligence Statement under EUDR Artwork

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EUDR Series: A close look at the requirements for filing a Due Diligence Statement under EUDR

April 17, 2025 • Intertek Assuris • Season 8 • Episode 11

In this episode, join scientific consultants Lois Haighton, Jayne Stewart, and Luke Gwenter from Intertek’s Food & Nutrition Assuris Group as they explore the requirements for filing a Due Diligence Statement under EUDR. Tune in as they discuss the due diligence statement or DDS, which is one of the 3 necessary conditions for EUDR compliance, in order to import or export relevant products to or from the EU market. Don't miss this informative podcast on navigating compliance in an evolving regulatory landscape!

Speaker:

Lois Haighton- Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris
Jayne Stewart- Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris
Luke Gwenter- Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

A close look at the requirements for filing a Due Diligence Statement under EUDR

00:18 --> 00:58
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Hello Everyone, Welcome to Intertek Assuris’s 4th pod cast on the European Union Deforestation Regulation or EUDR. I’m Lois Haighton, Senior Director with Intertek Assuris and for today’s topic, we will be having an in depth discussion about the Due Diligence Statement or DDS.

Today our panel is Jayne Stewart who is a manager on our Assuris team and helps clients understand EUDR risk assessment. Jayne presented our first EUDR podcast. Our Associate, Luke Gwenter, joins us again this week.

Luke and Jayne, welcome and welcome back! As we march ever closer to the EUDR deadline are you both ready to impart your DDS wisdom to our listeners.

00:58 --> 01:05
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Hi everyone, I am so pleased to be back here again today and to share this episode with you all.

01:05 --> 01:12
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Thanks Lois, it’s great to be back! And yes—definitely ready! I’m looking forward to sharing some practical insights today.

01:12 --> 01:19
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

So, to Start, Jayne, can you tell us what is the DDS?

01:19 --> 01:36
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

The due diligence statement or DDS is one of the 3 necessary conditions for EUDR compliance, in order to import or export relevant products to or from the EU market. This is outlined in Article 3 of the regulation.

01:36 --> 01:39
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

What are the other 2 legal conditions?

01:39 --> 02:01
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

The 2 additional conditions are that the products are deforestation-free, and that the commodities or relevant products have been produced in accordance with the relevant laws of the countries of production.

If these conditions are not met, the commodities or relevant products cannot be sold on the EU market or exported from the EU market.

02:01 --> 02:08
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Okay, so Luke can you tell us a bit about what information is required to be included on the DDS?

02:08 --> 02:26
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

The DDS contains 6 key elements and is guided in Annex II of the regulation. The first element is fairly straightforward: it requires identifying information about the operator. That includes the operator’s full name, company name, business address, postal code, and EORI number.

02:26 --> 02:29
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

What is the EORI number?

02:29 --> 02:41
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

For those unfamiliar, EORI stands for Economic Operators Registration and Identification number – it’s essentially an ID number used by businesses when they import or export goods across borders.

02:41 --> 02:46
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Okay, so contact and business information is required, what are the other elements?

02:47 --> 03:23
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Information about the relevant commodity or product needs to be included. This includes the HS code, trade name, product type and quantity. The quantity should be provided in kilograms and any relevant supplementary unit. The HS codes were explained in detail on one of our previous podcasts which may be accessed from our Interek podcast webpage.

If the commodity or product in question is wood you will also need the common name of the species and the full scientific name. An example here could be sugar pine and Pinus lambertiana.

03:23 --> 03:28
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Can you explain what a Supplementary unit is?

03:28 --> 03:40
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

This is an additional unit of measure provided, for example wood panels would require the m2. A detailed list is provided in Regulation 2658/87.

03:40 --> 03:43
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Anything else on the DDS?

03:43 --> 04:29
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

The third piece of information required for the DDS is related to the source of the commodities. This includes identifying the country of production and geolocation of all relevant plots of land, including the date and time range of production.

Now, depending on the commodity, there might be extra criteria. Take cattle, for example: in this case, the "date of production" refers to the animal's date of birth. It’s also worth noting that the EUDR will only apply to cattle born after the regulation comes into effect.

Finally, the DDS must include some additional details—like reference numbers from any other DDS filings, and a signature for confirmation. If this is the first DDS being filed, it must also include the geolocation data for all plots of land where the commodity was sourced.

04:29 --> 04:34
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Thanks Luke, Jayne can you tell us what a geolocation is and how is it obtained?

04:34 --> 04:59
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

The geolocation provides both latitude, and longitude coordinates. These points are to be provided with at least six decimal digits. If the plot of land is more than 4 hectares, information is to be provided as a polygon, indicating the perimeter of the plot of land. The coordinates can be provided in bulk in a file using the GeoJSON standard format.

04:59 --> 05:03
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Ok, so what is a polygon and how would you obtain that?

05:03 --> 05:18
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

The polygon refers to the outline of the forest perimeter or shape. It can be obtained by using GPS on a mobile device or if the polygon is a known area you could use something such as google earth to draw.

05:18 --> 05:23
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Ok. Luke, what is the purpose of the geolocation?

05:23 --> 05:42
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

The purpose is to enable authorities to verify that the land used for production is deforestation-free. In practice, this means the geolocation data must allow comparison with forest cover data from before the 31st of December 2020—which is the official cut-off date set by the regulation.

05:42 --> 05:48
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

What if the geolocation is for an area that was converted to a farm within the last 2 years?

05:48 --> 06:17
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Well, that might be a problem, it would depend on the land's use as of January 1, 2021, which is after the cut-off date. If the land was a forest that fits the definition under EUDR Article 2, then the commodity or product would not be considered deforestation-free and couldn’t be sold in the EU. However, if the land was being used for something else—like a remediated commercial site that was later converted into a farm—it wouldn’t be considered deforested under the EUDR.

06:17 --> 06:22
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Okay, so every DDS is to contain a geolocation?

06:22 --> 06:48
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Not exactly. The first DDS is filed by the operator who first places the commodity or product on the EU market or who exports it, this is the upstream operator. They are responsible for including the geolocation data.

Downstream non-SME operators and non-SME traders can include the reference number of the initial DDS within a later DDS.

06:48 --> 06:57
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Okay, so the upstream operator has to file a DDS with geolocations and all others just have to reference the first number, correct?

06:57 --> 07:17
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Not quite. Downstream operators and traders that are non-SMEs must file a DDS, where they can reference the first DDS. On the other hand, SME downstream operators and SME traders don’t need to file a DDS themselves, but they are required to keep a record of the DDS reference numbers for the products they make available.

07:17 --> 07:21
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Okay so SMEs do not need to submit any DDS.

07:21 --> 07:41
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Again, not quite. If the SME is the first to place the commodity or product on the market—or the first to export it—then they become the upstream operator. In this case, they’d be responsible for the DDS and for carrying out due diligence, since there wouldn’t be an existing DDS for that product yet.

07:41 --> 08:01
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Okay, so what you are telling me is that size is important, as is your role in the supply chain. One other point that comes into play is that the party that first places a product on the Union market might not actually be the owner of the product. What are the EUDR responsibilities of companies not based in Union but that want to place products on the EU market?

08:01 --> 08:38
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Great question Lois. Let’s look firstly at the definition of the operator, that is ‘any natural or legal person who, in the course of a commercial activity, places relevant products on the market or exports them’. However, according to recent EU guidance, the company based in a third country has the same obligations for compliance but still require another party in the Union to represent them.

However, both the company based in the third country and their Union representative bear responsibility for compliance and must ensure due diligence has been conducted.

08:38 --> 08:44
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

So once the DDS is completed, what happens next?

08:44 --> 08:56
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

The completed DDS is to be submitted through the Information System. Competent authorities are then responsible for checking the DDS and confirming compliance with the regulation.

08:56 --> 08:59
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

When must the DDS be submitted?

08:59 --> 09:14
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

As of the 30th December 2025, the DDS must be submitted before placing the relevant products on the market. Businesses can register with the EU Information System, which can be accessed through the European Commission’s website.

09:14 --> 09:18
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

How often does a Operator need to upload a DDS?

09:18 --> 09:41
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

If there are no changes in respect to the supply chain and the chain of custody is maintained, the DDS must be submitted at least annually. However, if the quantity of the imported or exported commodity/product exceeds that noted in the corresponding DDS, a new one must be filed for the additional volume mass.

09:41 --> 09:53
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

So that is that, once there is a first DDS with a geolocation showing it was from land deforestation-free it can be submitted and the product can be placed on the market or exported, correct?

09:53 --> 10:05
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Well, there’s also the equally important legal requirement that commodities and products must be produced in accordance with the relevant laws of the country of production. This is equally important and would constitute the due diligence part.

10:05 --> 10:08
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

And how do they do that?

10:08 --> 10:19
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

I am glad you asked. Well, the other due diligence requirements are to complete a risk assessment on a country of production basis and adopt risk mitigation procedures as needed.

10:19 --> 10:26
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

So all the traders and operators have to conduct due diligence and then they are okay to market the products, right?

10:26 --> 10:42
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Well, not quite, - the upstream operators who are responsible for the geolocations need to exercise due diligence. The downstream non-SME operators and non-SME traders need to ascertain that due diligence was exercised.

10:42 --> 10:52
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

I think we are going to need to do a couple more podcasts on this, but can you give a top level intro as to what is involved in risk assessment and risk mitigation?

10:52 --> 11:14
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

The Risk Assessment involves a 14-pillar assessment of each country encompassing legal requirements, indigenous concerns and details such as the percentage of the country covered by forest. It does not need to be uploaded to the Information System. However, the Risk Assessment will need to be maintained and made available for competent authorities upon request.

11:14 --> 11:29
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Risk mitigation will only be relevant if there are outstanding risks or concerns, which would be identified during the risk assessment. This could involve additional paperwork or independent audits.

We’ll dive deeper into this in a future podcast!

11:29 --> 11:41
Speaker 1 – Lois Haighton, Senior Director, Toxicology & Project Operations, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Thanks Everyone for joining us. For our next podcast we are going to discuss the 14 Pillars of the EUDR risk assessment in detail. I hope you will join us then.

11:41 --> 11:45
Speaker 3 – Luke Gwenter, Associate Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Thank you for listening, I hope you found the information helpful.

11:45 --> 11:56
Speaker 2 – Jayne Stewart, Scientific Consultant, Regulatory Affairs & Dietary Intakes, Food & Nutrition Group, Intertek Assuris

Thank you for listening to today. I hope this short podcast has helped you gain a clearer understanding about the EUDR due diligence statement.