The New Food-Safe Jute Standard for Cocoa: Who, Why, and What Changes

The push to clean up mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH) in cocoa has moved from lab slides to the rulebook. The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) has approved a new project to develop a food‑safe jute standard for cocoa and other commodities, formally led by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) and the Indian Jute Industry’s Research Association (IJIRA). While these two bodies are the official STDF implementing partners, the technical backbone of the work comes from the ECA/CAOBISCO/FCC Joint Cocoa Research Fund, which has spent the past years mapping MOH contamination in cocoa logistics and testing jute bags at scale.​

Why the Old Jute Standard No Longer Works

The current international jute standard, IJO 98/01, was written for another era. It designates bags as “food‑grade” based on a single proxy test: unsaponifiable material (USM) must be ≤ 1,250 mg/kg of jute fibre. Recent Joint Cocoa Research Fund work has shown how fragile that foundation is. In a representative dataset, the correlation between USM and MOAH—the more concerning aromatic fraction—was effectively zero (R² = 0.0001), while the link to MOSH was only modest (R² = 0.41). In practice, jute sacks that meet the IJO USM criterion can still carry high MOH loads, and “vegetable‑oil treated” bags marketed as food‑safe showed no statistically significant MOH advantage over mineral‑oil treated bags.​

This scientific reality collides with tightening regulation. The EU has begun to set horizontal limits for MOAH in food, and fat‑rich products like cocoa butter are particularly exposed. STDF documentation warns that, without preventive controls on jute, a significant volume of cocoa exports could fail EU expectations, with spill‑over risks for rice, spices and coffee that also rely on jute packaging. That trade‑risk framing is what brought STDF funding—and with it, a path to rewrite the standard.​

What Actually Changes: From Proxy to Direct Limits

The core innovation is conceptually simple: stop testing a proxy and start testing the contaminants themselves. The proposed specification replaces the USM threshold with direct MOH limits in the jute fabric:​

Migration modelling underpins the numbers: they are set so that, under realistic storage and transport conditions, MOH transfer from compliant jute to cocoa beans will keep finished products below anticipated EU thresholds (around 2 mg/kg for fats and oils), with an extra safety margin for other MOH sources along the chain. When the proposed limits were applied to 169 jute bag samples from diverse suppliers, about 45% complied with the MOAH cap and 55% with the MOSH cap, meaning roughly half of today’s jute supply for cocoa would fail, but also that fully compliant production is technically and commercially achievable.​

Who Does What in the New Governance Setup

On paper, ICCO and IJIRA are the entities signing the STDF grant and accountable for delivery. ICCO brings the cocoa‑sector convening power and a track record of managing food safety projects, while IJIRA anchors the work in the Indian jute industry, which remains a core supplier to global cocoa logistics. ECA, CAOBISCO and the Federation of Cocoa Commerce (FCC) exert influence through a different channel: they finance and steer the Joint Cocoa Research Fund, commission MOH risk assessments, and host the technical working groups (chaired by Michiel Kokken) that produced the jute datasets and the draft MOH specification now being taken up by STDF.​

That division of labour matters for how the story is told. The STDF project page lists only ICCO and IJIRA as “partners,” reflecting who holds fiduciary responsibility, but the underlying science, parameters and risk narrative are effectively industry‑authored. For the cocoa sector, this is an instance of private technical work being elevated into the multilateral standard‑setting arena.

Implementation, Risks and Open Questions

The project roadmap runs in phases. The current phase concentrates on stakeholder mapping, confirming the technical specification, and designing capacity‑building for jute and cocoa origins. In a second phase, the partners aim to formalise the MOH limits through one or more channels: revision of the IJO jute standard, inclusion as an optional quality clause in FCC cocoa contracts, and, more ambitiously, embedding in EU food‑contact materials rules. Parallel workstreams focus on guidance for jute mills covering batching oils, lubricants, printing inks and cross‑contamination where food‑grade and non‑food‑grade sacks share equipment.​

There are, however, real constraints. Many cocoa‑origin countries do not yet have routine access to LC‑GC‑FID or GC×GC‑MS for MOH, and the STDF’s capacity‑building promises will need to translate into concrete lab infrastructure and training to avoid a situation where exporters are technically responsible for compliance but practically unable to verify it. Enforcement along fragmented jute supply chains is another unknown: unless buyers demand and pay for compliant sacks, mills that currently fail the proposed thresholds may see little incentive to re‑engineer processes. There is also a risk that, if formal standard‑setting drags on, large processors default back to their own, potentially divergent, MOH specifications undermining the harmonisation goal.​

How This Could Reshape the Market

For cocoa‑producing countries, the specification is both a shield and a hurdle. It offers a clearer route to demonstrating due diligence on MOH, which should help keep access to high‑value EU markets, but it also raises the bar for bag procurement and quality control in export logistics systems that are often under‑resourced. For Indian and Bangladeshi jute exporters, it opens a strategic niche: mills able to reliably meet the 25/250 mg/kg MOAH/MOSH thresholds could secure preferred‑supplier status or price premiums in cocoa and in other foods where MOH concerns are rising.​

For European processors and traders, a recognised jute standard would reduce reliance on end‑product testing and fragmented private specs, offering a defensible reference point during inspections or audits of their MOH risk management. More broadly, the project could set a pattern for how secondary contamination issues are tackled: joint industry research to define risk, followed by STDF‑style funding to embed the resulting specifications into multilateral or contractual standards. As Codex and EU bodies continue to refine their views on MOH, the cocoa–jute case may become a template for similar packaging‑related interventions in other commodity chains.​

The European Cocoa Association (ECA), International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), Indian Jute Industry's Research Association (IJIRA), and Fairtrade Cocoa Commission jointly submitted a proposal to the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) in late 2025, which was recently approved. The project emerged from research initiated by the Joint Cocoa Research Fund, a collaborative vehicle that ECA members (collectively representing over 90% of European cocoa bean grinding and 85% of global cocoa liquor, butter, and powder output) established to identify solutions to supply chain contamination. The driving force behind much of this work is Michiel Kokken, Head of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at Olam Food Ingredients and Chair of the Technical Working Group on Mineral Oil Hydrocarbons, who has coordinated cross-sectoral engagement between the cocoa and jute industries.​

Why This Was Necessary

The current international standard for jute bags—IJO 98/01, established decades ago—has proven scientifically obsolete. It relies on a single proxy measurement called unsaponifiable material (USM) with a cutoff of 1,250 mg/kg to designate bags as "food-safe." However, research conducted through the Joint Cocoa Research Fund found virtually no correlation between USM and MOAH (the more hazardous mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbon, R² = 0.0001) and only weak correlation with MOSH (mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons, R² = 0.41). This means a jute bag can pass the existing standard and still contain dangerous levels of mineral oil contamination. The research confirmed that so-called "food-grade" vegetable oil–treated bags show no statistically significant difference in MOH levels compared to mineral oil–treated bags, rendering the current distinction meaningless.​

Regulatory pressure from the European Union accelerated the need for action. The EU has introduced regulatory limits for MOAH in foods, and cocoa products face compliance risk under these new rules. Without effective preventive measures, the STDF estimated that a significant share of cocoa exports could be at risk of non-compliance with EU requirements, potentially disrupting trade flows from West African cocoa producers and South Asian jute suppliers. The STDF explicitly noted that improved jute standards would also benefit rice, spices, and coffee, all commodities vulnerable to MOH contamination from jute packaging and would protect consumers in developing countries where jute is widely used for domestic food packaging.​

Technical Specifications: The Exact Changes

The new specification is calibrated using migration modeling that accounts for contact time between jute and cocoa beans during typical 12-month voyages, with built-in safety margins to ensure finished cocoa products will remain compliant with anticipated EU regulatory limits (currently expected at 2 mg/kg for fats and oils). Preliminary testing of 169 jute bags from diverse sources showed that approximately 45% currently comply with the proposed MOAH limit and 55% comply with the MOSH limit, suggesting that the specification is already achievable by the industry and not an unattainable target.​

Implementation Timeline and Influence

The STDF approval in December 2025 launches a phased approach. The current phase focuses on stakeholder engagement, gap assessment, and capacity-building framework development in cocoa- and jute-producing countries. The project will formalize the specifications through one of three pathways: a revised IJO standard, an optional clause in Fairtrade cocoa contracts, or an EU food contact materials regulation (longer-term).​

For cocoa-producing countries in West Africa and Southeast Asia, the specification introduces both challenge and opportunity. These nations will need to procure and verify jute bags against new MOH limits, but many lack analytical laboratory capacity to perform the required LC-GC-FID or GC×GC-MS testing. The STDF funding explicitly includes capacity-building measures, technical training for jute manufacturers on contamination sources (batching oils, equipment lubricants, cross-contamination prevention) and support for establishing or upgrading analytical facilities in origin countries. This contrasts sharply with previous regulatory tightening, where developing countries were often asked to comply without corresponding infrastructure support.​

For Indian and Bangladeshi jute suppliers, the standard creates a market differentiation opportunity. IJIRA's participation signals India's intent to position itself as a supplier of compliant jute bags, potentially commanding premium pricing or preferred status among European processors. Jute manufacturers will need to audit and control their production processes more rigorously particularly the mineral oil content of batching oils and the cleanliness of equipment shared with mineral oil treated bag production.

For European processors and traders (ECA members), the specification delivers a more predictable regulatory pathway. Rather than relying on ad hoc private specifications and end-product testing, companies can now reference a standardized, internationally recognized threshold. This simplifies procurement, reduces testing costs, and provides a credible defense against allegations of inadequate supply chain due diligence.​

At the broader commodity and regulatory level, this project establishes a template for multistakeholder, capacitybuildingintegrated standards development. It demonstrates how trade facilitation funds like the STDF can bring together competing interests EU processors, producingcountry governments, and material suppliers to agree on technical specifications that protect consumers while maintaining market access. As international discussions on MOH limits continue at Codex Alimentarius and in EU regulatory bodies, this jute standard may become a model for parallel initiatives in cocoa, coffee, and other commodities vulnerable to secondary contamination.

The specification is explicitly designed to remain under review as the regulatory landscape evolves, with the intention that it may be updated or superseded if international regulatory limits become stricter or more widely adopted.