To audit a psyllium plant, walk the process from seed intake to packed husk, check each step against what the mill claims, review its lab and lot records, and draw samples yourself for independent testing.
The goal is to confirm three things. The plant really mills psyllium, it can make your grade consistently, and its controls hold up when you are not there. A general checklist is in what a factory audit should contain. This article covers what is specific to psyllium.
Is it really a mill?
Many sellers around Unjha are traders who buy husk from mills and resell it. That is not wrong, but you should know. A working mill has seed stocks, cleaning lines, dehusking machines, sieves and aspirators, and the dust and noise to match. A trading office with a sample cupboard does not.
Walk the process
- Seed intake: how seed is bought, sampled and tested, and how lots are recorded.
- Storage: dry, clean, raised off the floor, with pest control records.
- Cleaning: sieves, de-stoners, aspirators and, if claimed, a colour sorter that is actually in use.
- Dehusking and separation: how husk is removed from the kernel and separated by sieving and air.
- Grading: how purity grades are made and kept apart, and whether lower fractions are blended back.
- Powder milling: mesh control, sieve condition and checks for metal.
- Sterilisation: in-house or outsourced, with time, temperature and moisture records.
- Packing: a clean, separate area, liners sealed, bags marked with lot numbers.
Check the lab
A psyllium mill should test its own product daily. Look for the equipment and the records, not just a lab room.
- Purity and light extraneous matter, as covered in what LEM in psyllium is.
- Swell volume, with a written method.
- Moisture, total ash and acid-insoluble ash.
- Mesh analysis for powder.
- Which tests go to outside labs, such as microbiology, pesticides and ETO, and copies of recent reports.
Traceability and your own samples
Pick a recent shipped lot and ask the mill to trace it back to the seed purchases and forward to the buyer. A good mill can do this from its records within an hour or two. If it cannot, a complaint or recall will be very hard to handle.
Then take samples from packed stock yourself, seal them and send them to an accredited lab. Compare the results with the mill's own certificate for the same lot. Large gaps tell you more than anything said in the meeting room.
Food safety and people
- Hygiene rules, protective clothing and hand washing at the entrance to production.
- Glass, metal and wood controls, and a working metal detector or magnet.
- Dust control, since fine husk dust is both a hygiene and a health issue for workers.
- Allergen handling if the site also processes other seeds. See allergen and cross-contact risks in psyllium plants.
- Certificates whose scope matches this site and process.
How Creston & Co handles this
We audit psyllium mills in person, follow the full process and check the records behind each claim. We draw samples ourselves for NABL-accredited lab testing and share the real factory name and report with you. Ask for a free sourcing review.