EPA Registration Number
What is EPA Registration Number?
An EPA registration number is the identifier printed on every EPA-registered pesticide label that tells you which company holds the registration and which product it is. The number is written as a company number, a dash, then a product number (EPA's own example: 6767-230), and the label must show it preceded by 'EPA Registration No.' or 'EPA Reg. No.' (40 CFR 156.10(e)). It is not the same as the EPA establishment number, which identifies the facility where the product was produced rather than the product itself.
Every pesticide label carries two identification numbers required by federal rule, and the one operators record most often is the EPA registration number. It tells you which company holds the registration and which specific product it is, written as a company number, a dash, then a product number. The EPA Label Review Manual puts it simply: the number “indicates which company holds the registration for the pesticide product, and in which sequence the product was submitted to EPA by the company” (Label Review Manual, Chapter 14). Product numbers are assigned sequentially to each company, so the first product a company submits becomes product 1 once registered, the second becomes 2, and so on. Not every pesticide product carries one: minimum-risk products exempt under FIFRA section 25(b) (40 CFR 152.25(f)) are not EPA-registered and have no EPA registration number (Pesticide Labeling Questions & Answers).
The label must show the number preceded by “EPA Registration No.” or “EPA Reg. No.” (40 CFR 156.10(e)), and a distributor product adds a third segment: the basic registration number, a dash, and the distributor’s company number. If you see three sets of numbers separated by dashes, you are looking at a distributor product.
The registration number is not the establishment number. The establishment number identifies the final establishment where the product was produced and is preceded by “EPA Est.” (40 CFR 156.10(f)); by EPA practice it also carries the state’s letters, e.g. 98989-HI-002. Both are required on every pesticide product (40 CFR 156.10(a)(1)(iv)-(v)), but they answer different questions: the registration number says what the product is, and the establishment number says where it was made.
For a pest control operator, the registration number is the one that matters in records. It goes onto the pesticide application log alongside the product name, rate, and application site. It also appears on the pest control work order and the commercial pest control log book. When a product is classified as a restricted use pesticide, the registration number ties the application record back to the specific registered product that carries the restriction. Two products with the same active ingredient carry different registration numbers and different labels, so the product swap calculator’s equivalent rate is only a cross-check, and the record takes the number of the product actually applied.