Three acronyms get thrown into pizza arguments as though they settle things: AVPN, DOC, and STG. They are usually cited by people who have not read the underlying documents, often interchangeably, and frequently in support of claims the documents do not make.
This page uses the current documents rather than paraphrasing them from memory. We checked the AVPN 2024 International Regulations and the EU's Pizza Napoletana TSG registration, Commission Regulation (EU) No 97/2010 on 3 August 2026. Those are separate instruments with different owners and scopes.
One correction matters immediately: DOC is not a third, pizza-wide rulebook parallel to AVPN and TSG. In pizza talk it is often used loosely, or it points to a protected ingredient. A claim such as DOP mozzarella or DOP tomatoes must be checked against that ingredient's exact registered name and specification. If somebody says only "pizza DOC," ask them to name the instrument.
Three different kinds of thing
The most common error is treating these as three versions of the same rulebook. They are not the same kind of instrument at all, and the differences matter more than the contents.
| AVPN standard | "DOC" in pizza talk | Pizza Napoletana TSG | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kind of instrument | A trade association's private standard | Not one identifiable pizza instrument without a full registered name | A registered EU traditional-speciality specification |
| Who writes it | AVPN | Depends on the exact protected product being claimed | Registered through the EU quality-scheme process |
| Who it binds | Members and authorised users of the AVPN mark | Producers using the exact protected designation | Producers marketing under the registered TSG name |
| Applies to a home cook | No | No commercial designation claim | No commercial designation claim |
| What it protects | An association mark and production method | Whatever the named product specification protects | The registered traditional recipe and method |
Read that table first. A private association's rules for its own members and a designation registered under food-quality law are different in kind. They can be broadly aligned in substance and still differ completely in who wrote them, who they bind, and what happens if you ignore them.
AVPN: an association's own standard
AVPN is a trade association concerned with Neapolitan pizza. Like many trade associations, it publishes a standard describing the method and the requirements its members work to, and it licenses a mark that identifies member pizzerias.
The important consequence: this is a private standard attached to a membership and a mark. It has real force over the pizzerias that have signed up, because they have agreed to it and because the mark is the association's to grant or withdraw. It has no force over anyone else, and a pizzeria that is not a member is not violating anything.
Its current rules cover the finished pizza, dough ingredients and mixing, fermentation, shaping, toppings, baking, equipment, and permitted product types. The source is the association's 2024 English regulations; use the PDF itself when a precise weight, time, temperature, or ingredient rule matters.
DOC: a product designation
DOC in this context is a designation scheme applied to a product. Designation schemes attach a protected name to a defined product made in a defined way, and enforcement runs through the scheme's own authority rather than through a membership organisation.
Two frequent confusions worth heading off:
DOC on a pizza and DOC on an ingredient are separate things. The DOP designation on tomatoes and on mozzarella that people cite in pizza arguments are ingredient designations governed by their own specifications. They are not the same document as anything governing pizza, and satisfying one says nothing about the other. What an ingredient designation does and does not guarantee is covered separately in what "San Marzano DOP" actually guarantees.
A designation is not a quality score. It certifies conformity with a written specification. A conforming product can be mediocre and a non-conforming one excellent.
There is therefore no generic set of "DOC pizza requirements" to list. Name the protected ingredient or product first, then open that product's official register entry.
STG: a registered traditional specialty
STG is a designation under EU food-quality law for a traditional specialty. It differs from origin-based designations in an important structural way: it protects a traditional recipe or method rather than tying production to a geographic area.
That structural point is the useful one, and it is the piece most often missed. An origin designation says a product must be made in a place. A traditional-specialty designation says it must be made a certain way, and it can be made anywhere by a producer who follows the registered specification and enters the scheme.
So a pizzeria a long way from Naples can, in principle, produce under a traditional-specialty registration if it complies and participates. That fact alone dismantles a large share of the arguments these acronyms get used in.
The registered specification and registration history are public in the EUR-Lex record for Commission Regulation (EU) No 97/2010. The annex sets out the registered product description, ingredients, preparation method, baking, and checks.
What none of them govern
This is the most useful section on the page, because the overwhelming majority of misuse involves stretching a specification over something it never addressed.
None of these instruments governs:
Other styles. Nothing here says anything about New York, Detroit, Roman teglia, tavern style, New Haven, Sicilian, or anything else. A specification for one style is silent on every other style. It is not a hierarchy and reading it as one is a category error.
What you do in your own kitchen. No home cook is bound by any of this. There is no compliance obligation, no inspection, and no consequence. You are not doing anything wrong by using a different flour.
Quality, in general. Conformity with a specification is not a rating. See above.
Most of what makes a pizza good. Specifications cover the things that can be written down and checked. They cannot cover the judgement in a bake, the state of a dough on a given day, or whether the person at the oven turned it at the right moment.
Rim appearance. The documents describe the finished rim, but neither turns the internet's preferred density of black spots into a universal quality score. Leopard spotting is a consequence of a bake profile, not a test for every pizza style; see leoparding explained.
Each other. Complying with one instrument does not imply compliance with another. They were written by different bodies for different purposes.
Who they actually apply to
AVPN's standard applies to its members, and to anyone using its mark. Membership is voluntary. Non-members are not in breach of anything.
The designations apply to producers who claim the protected name or use the designated term in commerce. The obligation arises from making a commercial claim, not from making a pizza.
None of them apply to you at home, and none of them apply to a pizzeria that has simply chosen not to participate. A shop making excellent Neapolitan-technique pizza outside any scheme is doing nothing improper. It has just not signed up, which is a business decision.
How to use them properly
We rate these documents highly, which is worth saying in a piece that spends this long on their limits. In a category where almost everything is transmitted as folklore, a written specification published by an identifiable body, with a version and a date, is rare and valuable.
Four rules for using them well.
Read the original. Both the association's standard and the EU register entries are publicly available. Second-hand summaries, including summaries on well-regarded sites, are frequently wrong in specifics, and specifics are the entire point of a specification.
Cite the version and the date. These documents get revised. A requirement quoted without a version is a requirement that might be years out of date. This is why we date this page and log our retrieval dates.
Keep the scope straight. Name which instrument you are citing and what it binds. "The rules say" is not a citation, and the three instruments here do not say the same things to the same people.
Use them as reference, not as a verdict. They tell you what a defined set of requirements is. They do not tell you whether a pizza is good, and they say nothing at all about styles they do not cover. That distinction is the subject of why authenticity is the wrong lens.
The most productive use is the one nobody makes in arguments: read them to find out what a serious body thought was worth writing down. That tells you what practitioners consider load-bearing, which is what the Neapolitan style reference tries to separate from inherited convention.
FAQs
Does my home pizza have to follow any of this? No. None of these instruments binds a home cook. There is no scheme you are outside of and no requirement you are failing.
Is an AVPN-certified pizzeria better than one that isn't? Certification tells you a pizzeria has joined an association and works to its standard. It does not rank that pizzeria against a non-member. Plenty of excellent pizzerias have never applied.
Which of the three is the "real" one? None of them. They are not competing. One is a private trade association's standard and the others are designation schemes. They can coexist, overlap, and disagree without any being authoritative over the rest.
Why link instead of copying every requirement? Because exact requirements change and context matters. This page explains scope; the linked official documents govern exact figures and wording.
In Plain English
AVPN publishes a private association standard governing its members and mark. Pizza Napoletana TSG is an EU-registered traditional-speciality specification. "DOC" by itself does not identify a third pizza rulebook: it must be tied to an exact protected product or treated as informal language. None of these binds a home cook or ranks other pizza styles.
This helps anyone who has seen these acronyms used as trump cards in arguments and never seen the underlying text.
Use them as reference documents: read the original, cite the version and date, and keep the scope straight. Do not use them as a quality ranking or as a rule over styles they do not cover.
Next step: read the actual documents rather than a summary, including this one. Then read the Neapolitan style reference to see which widely quoted "requirements" are specification and which are convention.
Where to go next
- Read the full guide: why "authentic" is the least useful word in pizza
- The style these govern: the Neapolitan style reference
- An ingredient designation, explained: what "San Marzano DOP" actually guarantees
- A "requirement" that is not one: leoparding explained
- How we handle citations: our editorial standards and our sources page
- More context: the history hub