The Federal Office for Food Safety is the first authority responsible for implementing the Seed Act 1997 as amended. The aim of the Seed Act is to ensure the quality of seeds placed on the market by official measures.

The high level of certainty in achieving the quality standards in official seed certification is achieved, among other things, by

field certification of seed-producing crops with examination

• of the initial seed (e.g. variety, identity, quality, freedom from genetic engineering in accordance with the Seed Genetic Engineering Ordinance 2001)
• the area under propagation (e.g. crop rotation, previous crop effects, minimum size, identity)
• the plant population of the propagation (e.g. health status, varietal purity, stocking with weeds and species that are difficult to remove)

Requirements for seed certification such as the requirements for the field crop of the propagation area are regulated in Section 3 of the Seed Act as well as in the crop species-specific relevant methods for seed and varieties in accordance with § 5 of the Seed Act for the technical implementation of seed law.

The Application for seed certification with the seed certification authority (Federal Office for Food Safety, contact: by telephone +43(0)5 0555 31121 or by e-mail at saatgut @baes.gv.at) can be submitted by a propagator organisation or by the propagator himself (under certain conditions). Applications must be submitted on time and the latest possible dates are published in the Ordinance of the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism on the Implementation of the Seed Act 1997, Seed Ordinance 2006 as amended. It should be noted that only the applicant has party status (legal status) with the Federal Office for Food Safety.