Quality & Compliance
Being approximately right about food safety is the same as being wrong. Here is the procedure every lot goes through, in the order it happens.
Quality is a procedure here, not a promise
Most quality problems in this trade are not caused by bad intentions. They are caused by a busy week — a vessel cut-off, a lot that arrives late, and a checkpoint quietly skipped because the buyer is unlikely to notice. Our answer is that the checkpoints are not optional and not ours to waive. A lot either passes them or it does not ship.
The facility runs a documented HACCP plan under ISO 22000, with FSSAI licensing and organic certification on selected lines. Below is what actually happens between a truck arriving at our gate and a container sailing with your name on the bill of lading.
- Sampling at intake, after cleaning, and again at stuffing — three separate checks
- Counter-samples retained twelve months against every lot shipped
- Photographic record of every container loading, sent with the documents
- Third-party inspection welcomed at load port, at your nomination
Six checkpoints between the gate and the vessel
Each one has a person accountable for it and a record that survives the shipment.
Intake sampling
Every arriving truck is probed at multiple points before it is unloaded. Moisture, admixture and infestation are read on the spot, and a lot that fails goes back on the truck rather than into the shed.
Cleaning & grading
Destoning, gravity separation, sieving and colour sorting, with a second sortex pass on premium grades. Moisture is corrected to contract before the lot is released to stock, not after it is booked.
Laboratory panel
Moisture, foreign matter, damaged and defective counts on every lot; aflatoxin, pesticide residue and microbiological panels according to the commodity and the destination market's limits.
Packing under supervision
Food-grade material only, metal detection on the line, batch coding at fill and a supervisor signature per pallet. Bag weights are check-weighed against the declared net, not assumed.
Stuffing record
Container inspected for odour, damp and previous cargo before loading, then photographed empty, part-loaded, full and sealed. The seal number is in the same set of images.
Retained counter-sample
A sealed sample of what actually shipped is kept here for twelve months. If a claim is raised, we open our sample and read it before we say a word about yours.
The panel, and who it is run for
Not every commodity needs every test, and paying for an irrelevant panel does nobody any good. What follows is the standing programme — the tests we run as a matter of course and the ones we add when the commodity or the destination calls for them.
Testing is split between our own laboratory for routine physical parameters and NABL-accredited external laboratories for residue, aflatoxin and microbiological work. Certificates are issued in your name and travel with the shipping documents.
Request a Sample Analysis| Moisture | Every lot, every commodity, at intake and again before stuffing |
|---|---|
| Foreign matter & admixture | Every lot, measured by weight after cleaning |
| Damaged, defective & discoloured | Counted per 100 g sample on pulses, rice, beans and nuts |
| Aflatoxin | Nuts, groundnut, maize, chilli and spice lots — to EU or destination limit |
| Pesticide residue | External NABL laboratory, to EU MRL or destination-market schedule |
| Microbiological | Salmonella, E. coli, yeast and mould on hulled seeds, nuts and ground spices |
| Colour & volatile oil | ASTA colour on chilli; volatile oil on cumin, cardamom and fennel |
| Heavy metals | On request, and as standard on rock salt and selected spice lines |
| Infestation | Visual and sieve check at intake, after storage and at stuffing |
Additional parameters are added per contract. Where you nominate an inspection agency — SGS, Bureau Veritas, Intertek or another — we load under their supervision.
What we hold, and what it actually covers
Certificates are available on request, with scope and validity dates, before you place an order rather than after.
The paperwork that travels with your container
Documents are prepared in house and issued ahead of vessel cut-off, not chased after sailing. A missing certificate at discharge costs more in demurrage than the goods are worth arguing about.
The questions buyers ask before the first order
If something below is not answered the way you need it, ask us directly. We would rather have the awkward conversation in the enquiry than in a claim.
Ask Us DirectlyAsk for the analysis sheet before you ask for the price.
Send the commodity and the destination market. You will have the current lot's figures and a sample plan within one business day.