The USDA has selected and prioritized items for designation as "preferred" biobased products. The USDA, other government agencies, private industry groups, and independent manufacturers have evaluated these items against program criteria established collaboratively. (For more information, click here.)

Each product within a category was evaluated against its non-biobased counterpart for cost effectiveness, accessibility, and performance. In addition to these primary concerns, the USDA also considered the following questions:

What is the interest level in various items? How many companies produce biobased products within the different categories? What level of difficulty is expected in designating specific items? What is the federal demand for various products? How are federal procurement professionals made aware of biobased products? How will demand for biobased products impact the demand for biobased feedstocks? How does manufacturing within this item affect rural economic development?

To prioritize efforts under BioPreferred the USDA is using a ranked list of current biobased products. This list, found on the following pages, represents only the current priority status and as such, is incomplete. As new items are identified and new information is collected from manufacturers, the designation matrix used to evaluate items will be modified. Distributors and manufacturers of biobased products not included in the following list are encouraged to contact the BioPreferred staff.