What a millet certificate of analysis should show

A certificate of analysis is a laboratory report for one lot of grain, not a quality badge. Most of what makes one useful is visible in thirty seconds.

A certificate of analysis is not a quality badge and it is not a marketing document. It is a laboratory report for one specific lot of grain, and its only job is to let you check that what shipped matches what you bought. Most of what makes a certificate useful, or useless, is visible in the first thirty seconds.

One lot, one certificate

The certificate must reference a lot number, and that lot number must appear on the bags and on the shipping documents. A certificate that covers "our foxtail millet" in general covers nothing. If the number on the paper cannot be traced to the sacks in front of you, the document has no evidential value at all.

Issued by the laboratory, in the laboratory’s name

A certificate issued by the seller on the seller’s letterhead is a self-assessment. That is not automatically dishonest, but it is not independent either, and it will not help you in a dispute. What you want is a report from an accredited third-party laboratory, issued in that laboratory’s own name, with its accreditation reference printed on the document so you can check it.

This distinction matters more than most buyers realise. An exporter can be entirely straight and still not be a laboratory. We are a sourcing and export house; the testing is done by people whose business is testing, and the certificate says so.

What should be on the page

• The lot number, and the quantity it covers.
• The date the sample was drawn and the date of analysis, not just an issue date.
• How the sample was drawn. Composite sampling across the lot, ideally at intake and again before loading.
• Each parameter tested, the result, and the limit being applied.
• The method used for each test, so a second laboratory can reproduce it.
• The laboratory’s name, accreditation reference and an authorised signature.

Four things that should make you pause

• No lot number. The document cannot be tied to your grain.
• Results that never move. If moisture reads exactly 11.5 % on every certificate across a season, you are looking at a template, not a test. Real analysis varies.
• No method references. Without them, a disputed result cannot be checked against a second laboratory on equal terms.
• An issue date long after the shipment date. The certificate should be produced from a sample drawn before loading, not written up afterwards to satisfy a bank.

The retention sample is the real check

A certificate tells you what a laboratory found. A sealed retention sample lets you find out for yourself, later, if you need to. Held in three sets for six months and referenced to the lot number, it is what converts a claim from an argument into an analysis. Any supplier who will issue certificates but not hold sealed counter-samples is offering you half of the system.

One variety needs an extra line

Kodo millet carries a cyclopiazonic acid risk specific to the species, and a standard aflatoxin panel does not cover it. No regulatory limit for CPA is established in either the Indian or the EU framework, which means the only useful thing a supplier can do is screen for it anyway and report the measured result. If you are buying kodo, ask whether CPA appears on the certificate. If the answer is vague, that tells you something.

Our full residue and contaminant panel sets out every parameter we test per lot and the limits applied on both the Indian and the EU side.