# Digestate Quality Originating from Kitchen Waste
## 7 Digestate as Component Material Category  
The European Waste Catalogue (EWC) provides common terminology for generated waste type. In the case of wastes that come from anaerobic treatment processes, three following types can be distinguished [79]:  
* 19 06 05 is a liquor from the anaerobic treatment of animal and vegetable waste;
* 19 06 04 is a digestate from the anaerobic treatment of municipal waste;
* 19 06 06 is a digestate from anaerobic treatment of animal and vegetable waste. The above wastes are considered to be non-hazardous. They can be ceased as waste and become a component material category, such as CMC 5. Further, CMC 5 can make up a product function category (PFC) and gain application in agriculture as  
* PFC1--fertil: organic, organo-mineral, or inorganic and either solid or liquid;
* PFC3--soil improver: organic or inorganic;
* PFC4--growing medium;
* PFC7--fertilising product blend. Before being placed on the market, PFCs must be properly tested in terms of quality (minimum content of nutrients and carbon) and safety (heavy metals, pathogens, contaminants, stability) and receive an EU declaration of conformity. Tests are carried out in units with the appropriate authorisation, so-called conformity assessment bodies, which the European Commission assigned as a notified body and provided with an individual identification number for carrying out the conformity assessment of EU fertilising products under Regulation (EU) 2019/1009. Such bodies can evaluate various product types within certain modules, and in the case of CMC 5, mandatory is module D1, for any EU fertilising product, ensuring the compliance of the EU fertilising products with the Fertilising Products Regulation (EU/2019/1009). Module D1 refers to the quality assurance of the production process. The manufacturer is obliged, among others, to prepare technical documentation, which, in addition to a general description of the product and the declared fertilising function, contains a detailed description of the production process, with detailed operations, their location, and the results of testing of input and output material. In turn, the notified body evaluates the quality system introduced by the fertiliser manufacturer as well as its compliance with the requirements and law, and then conducts an audit. Additionally, under the guidelines contained in EC Regulation 2019/1009, each product function category must meet the relevant standards and must not exceed the designated limit values for contaminants, which are presented in the example of selected PFCs in Table 3[4]. Following the guidelines of the regulation, pathogens in PFC must not exceed the following limits:  
* for five tested samples, _Salmonella_ spp. absence in 25 g or 25 mL;
* for five tested samples, _Escherichia coli_ or _Enterococcaceae_ limit 1000 in 1 g or 1 mL. Additionally, the PFC guidelines for both liquid and solid states refer to the minimum content of micronutrients (% by mass) as well as minimum levels of nitrogen, phosphorus pentoxide, potassium oxide, and organic carbon. The European Commission has also requested the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) to develop applicable standards of EU conformity referring to:  
* sampling and sample preparation;
* test methods for the determination of elements (heavy metals and others);
* test methods for the detection of microorganisms. Consequently, the first technical specifications (TS) appeared in April 2022, and the first harmonised standards are expected to be published in 2024 and 2025. It is worth pointing out that EU fertilising products may contain digestate that does not meet the national end-of-waste criteria, but it is enough if they comply with the requirements of the CMCs to be placed on the market in any EU country. EU fertilising products must be safe for humans, animals, plants, and the environment; hence, the aim of the requirements set out in the regulations is to ensure they present no risk.