How to Read a Spice Lab Report
Aflatoxins, moisture, pesticide residue, what each figure on an accredited report means, and where the red lines sit.
A lab report is the most honest thing in a spice transaction. Learn to read four or five numbers on it and you can judge a lot's safety and quality without ever seeing the goods.
Start with the header, not the numbers
Before any figure, confirm the report is from an accredited laboratory (NABL in India, or an equivalent), that it references your lot or batch, and that it is recent. A generic or undated certificate tells you nothing about the goods being shipped.
The figures that matter most
- Moisture, too high invites mould and weight disputes; each spice has a safe ceiling (turmeric and chilli typically under ~10%).
- Aflatoxins, toxins from fungal growth, tightly capped by importing countries. This is a hard safety limit, not a preference.
- Pesticide residue / MRLs, measured against the maximum residue limits of your destination market, which differ between the EU, US and others.
- ASTA colour & Scoville / curcumin / piperine, the quality specs specific to the product (colour and heat for chilli, curcumin for turmeric, piperine for pepper).
- Foreign matter & microbiology, cleanliness and pathogen limits (Salmonella must be absent).
Reading against your market
The same lot can pass for one destination and fail another, purely on residue limits. Always read a report through the lens of where the goods are going, the EU's MRLs are among the strictest, and a lot cleared for one region should never be assumed clean for another.