How to Spot Fake Wood Pellets: Counterfeit ENplus, "A1" Agro Pellets, Rebagging

What exactly gets faked

• The ENplus mark without a certificate. The logo is printed on the bag or used in an advert even though the company is not certified. According to ENplus itself, unlawful use of the mark in advertising and on bags is the most common violation it investigates.
• Someone else's bag design. The bag of a well-known certified producer is copied down to the smallest details, but inside are pellets of unknown origin.
• Rebagging. Cheap bulk pellets are tipped into branded bags. The bag is genuine, the pellets are not.
• An inflated class. "A1" on pellets containing bark, on a blend of wood and husk, or even on agro pellets.
• Fake documents. An old report for someone else's batch, a report with no laboratory, a "certificate" drawn in an image editor.

The goal is always the same: to sell class B or agro pellets at the A1 price. The difference is several thousand hryvnias per tonne, and in a flame burner such a substitution ends in clinker cakes and boiler shutdowns.

Step 1. What must be on the bag

A bag of ENplus-certified wood pellets must show:

• the ENplus logo and the quality class: A1, A2 or B;
• the certificate ID code: two country letters and a number, for example "UA 0XX" or "PL 0XX". A logo without an ID code means nothing;
• the diameter (6 or 8 mm), net weight, and the name and contact details of the producer or seller;
• storage and use instructions.

Signs of rebagging: a bag sewn or taped by hand instead of a factory heat seal, blurred or misaligned print, different pellet quantities or different pellet colours in bags from the same pallet, no production date or batch number.

Step 2. Check the ID code on the ENplus website

1. On enplus-pellets.eu, open the section listing certified companies (Certified companies).
2. Find the company by ID code or name. The name on the bag and in the list must match.
3. In the company profile, look at the approved bag designs and compare them with what you are being offered.
4. Check that the seller is not on the ENplus Blacklist, where companies that have misused certification are published.

A trader may hold its own ENplus certificate or may simply resell a certified producer's bags. That is fine as long as the bags are factory-sealed and their ID code checks out. It is suspicious when a seller offers "ENplus A1 in bulk" without any ID and cannot explain whose certificate it is.

Step 3. Agro pellets and blends are never ENplus

ENplus certifies wood pellets only. Pellets made from sunflower husk, straw or other agricultural waste cannot hold ENplus class A1, A2 or B. If an advert says "ENplus A1 agro pellets", the seller either does not understand what they are selling or is deliberately misleading you. Agro pellets are a perfectly good fuel, but for different boilers: which boilers suit agro pellets.

A blend of wood and husk can be spotted without a laboratory: darker pellets with a distinctive smell of roasted seeds and a lot of ash after burning. In a flame burner such fuel forms clinker within a few hours.

Step 4. Read the test report, not the certificate

A certificate tells you about the company; a test report tells you about the specific batch. Ask for the report before paying and check:

• Date and batch number: recent, and relating to the very pellets being delivered to you.
• Laboratory: name, accreditation certificate number, signature. The accreditation of a Ukrainian laboratory can be checked in the register of the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine (NAAU, НААУ).
• Figures. ENplus benchmarks:

An "A1" report with 1.5% ash is not A1 but B, whatever the bag says. A report without a single figure is not a report. Examples of what genuine batch documents look like are on our About us page.

Step 5. Price and seller

A1 wood pellets cannot cost the same as agro pellets. If the price is 20-30% below the market and the seller promises "ENplus A1, from Poland, documents later", it is almost always a class substitution, and sometimes plain prepayment fraud. Common scams are covered in "How to avoid fuel scammers". ENplus also warns separately about fake websites copying certified companies and about forged invoices with altered bank details: verify the seller's contacts against the company profile on the ENplus website, not against the advert.

Step 6. Physical check of the bag

With the paperwork in order, it only remains to make sure the bag contains what it says. A trial bag and six tests are enough: the bottom of the bag, the snap test, water, colour and smell, weight, and burning on a plate. How to do them and how to read the results is explained in "How to check wood pellets at home in 5 minutes".

Checklist before paying

1. The bag shows the ENplus class and ID code, not just the logo.
2. The ID code and company name appear in the list of certified companies on enplus-pellets.eu.
3. The bag is factory-made and matches the design in the company profile.
4. The pellets are made of wood: there is no such thing as ENplus agro pellets.
5. There is a recent batch test report with a laboratory and figures within the class limits.
6. The price is within the market range for this class.
7. A trial bag has passed the home tests.
8. Payment on delivery, not prepayment to a card.

If you have already bought fake pellets

• Keep the bag, the receipt or delivery note, photos and your correspondence with the seller.
• Demand a refund or exchange: goods that do not match their stated specifications are grounds for this under the Law of Ukraine "On Consumer Rights Protection".
• Report unlawful use of the ENplus mark to ENplus itself via the form on its website; they do not disclose who filed the complaint.
• If you paid in advance and the seller disappeared, file a report with the police; for substandard goods, file a complaint with the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection (Держпродспоживслужба).