A CRMA material-identity term for substances used as inputs to intermediate or final products, excluding substances mainly used as food, feed, or combustion fuel.
Raw material is the base material-identity layer in the CRMA vocabulary. It is broader than critical raw material or strategic raw material: the latter are policy categories applied to specific raw materials because of economic importance, supply risk, or strategic relevance. For battery and product-passport teams, this term helps separate the general material input from the narrower lists and evidence obligations that attach to critical or strategic materials.
This page is anchored in CRMA Article 2, point 1. It should be read as an EU critical-materials source term, not as a universal mining, commodity, or chemical classification. The definition covers processed and unprocessed substances used as manufacturing inputs and explicitly excludes substances predominantly used as food, feed or combustion fuel.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials
a substance in processed or unprocessed state used as an input for the manufacturing of intermediate or final products, excluding substances predominantly used as food, feed or combustion fuel
CRMA Article 2 source-specific definition layer.
Reference: Article 2, point 1
Companies use this term when deciding whether a material record belongs in a CRMA-style material-evidence workflow before checking whether that material is also critical, strategic, recycled, or connected to a battery-material requirement. It is the starting category, not the risk classification itself.
The practical ambiguity is that teams often jump straight from a material name to a compliance label. Minespider treats raw material as the general input layer: first identify the substance and its role in the product or supply chain, then attach the CRMA category, source, risk, recycled-content, or passport evidence that applies.