In the vast majority of European countries, there are few or no laws defining the quality of wood pellets. It is common for pellet quality regulations to be covered by general legislation on biomass.

At present, only a few European countries, such as Austria, Sweden, Italy and Germany, have official standards for compressed biomass (such as pellets). For this reason, some of these standards (in particular ÖNORM M1735 and DIN plus) enjoy wide acceptance at pan-European level even beyond their countries of origin. From countries with national quality pellets standards, Austria's ÖNORM M1735 is one of the toughest and includes controls on both its product and its production system.

Other countries (eg Denmark and Finland) have decided to expect and adopt a common European wood pellet quality standard in their domestic legislation when it is institutionalized. Since the beginning of 2010, the EN 14961-1 standard has been adopted, which refers generally to biomass (and pellets) for industrial uses. The most specific standard exclusively for wood pellets will be called EN 14961-2 and when it enters into force all the individual national quality standards will have to comply with it or adopt it within 6 months. EN 14961-2 quality standard refers to wood pellets intended for non-industrial use and is in the final draft stage. Accordingly, the EN 14961-6 standard for pellets from biomass, other than wood, is in preparation. Similarly, EN 14961-6 will concern non-industrial uses.

Table 1 below shows the most common quality standards already in place in Europe and the final draft EN-14961-2.

Irrespective of the final quality system, the need for certification of the pellet specifications is present to ensure the highest possible absorption of the product produced by the growing pellet market.