ISPM 15 explained

What it covers

ISPM 15 is an international phytosanitary standard covering solid wood packaging material — pallets, crates, cases, drums, and the dunnage used to brace a load. Solid wood packaging material moving between Great Britain and the EU must meet ISPM 15 treatment and marking requirements.

Manufactured wood-based products such as plywood, oriented strand board and particleboard are processed in ways that place them outside the standard's scope, and plastic pallets are not wood packaging at all. If it is solid timber and it is holding your goods up, assume the standard is in play until you have checked otherwise.

Treatment, then marking

Timber is treated by an approved method — heat treatment is the one you will see almost universally in this trade, shown by the code HT — and the treated wood is then marked by the registered operator who carried out or is responsible for the treatment. Treatment without marking is commercially useless at a frontier, because nobody can see it.

Reading the mark

The mark carries, in a bordered box:

• The IPPC symbol.
• A two-letter country code.
• The unique registered producer or operator code.
• The treatment code — HT for heat treatment, with DB shown where debarking is indicated.

On EPAL 1 pallets, look at the centre block. Our identification guide walks through where each mark sits, and why an EPAL brand mark is a different thing entirely.

The mark is the evidence

This is the point most often misunderstood. The ISPM 15 mark on the wood, rather than a certificate in a document pack, is the key evidence of compliance. Marks can be checked at the border, and non-compliant wood packaging may be rejected or destroyed — at the consignor's or consignee's cost, with the consignment held while it is sorted out.

So a supplier's assurance, an invoice line reading “heat treated” or a spreadsheet entry is not what an inspector reads. They read the block.

What tends to go wrong

• Unmarked dunnage. Treated pallets, untreated bearers. Very common, and entirely avoidable.
• Illegible marks. Obscured by wrap, labels, paint, mud or simple wear.
• Repairs with untreated timber. The mark no longer describes the pallet in front of the inspector.
• Bark. Wood packaging is expected to be free of bark beyond small tolerated pieces.
• Assuming EPAL implies treatment. It does not. Pool status and plant-health status are separate systems.

What to do before you load

Photograph the marked blocks, keep the images against the consignment reference, and check the pallets physically rather than trusting the delivery note. Our importer and exporter checklist sets out a workable routine, and GB and EU movements covers direction-specific points including Northern Ireland.