India mainly exports brown or black mustard seed, with smaller volumes of yellow mustard. Export lots are commonly traded by seed size, purity and cleaning level rather than by a formal national grade.
Most Indian mustard is crushed for oil at home. Export seed for spice packers and food makers is a cleaned, sorted subset of that crop, so the grade you get depends heavily on the cleaning plant.
Where Indian mustard grows
Mustard is a winter (rabi) crop. Rajasthan is the largest growing state, with Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat also important. It is usually sown around October and November and harvested roughly February to March, with arrivals in the market peaking soon after.
Most of the crop is Indian mustard (Brassica juncea), which gives the brown to dark seed most buyers call black mustard. The colour differences are explained in yellow and black mustard seed.
How export lots are described
- Colour: black or brown is the main trade. Yellow is available in smaller volumes.
- Size: commonly traded as bold, medium or small seed, sometimes with a sieve size stated.
- Purity: often quoted as 99% or 99.5%, for illustration, meaning the share of sound mustard seed by weight.
- Cleaning: machine-cleaned or sortex-cleaned. Sortex removes discoloured seed and look-alike foreign seeds.
- Crop year: new crop is usually preferred for flavour and germination-sensitive uses.
Who buys which grade
Spice packers and ethnic food brands usually want small to medium black seed, sortex cleaned, for whole-seed tempering. Pickle makers and condiment producers may accept a less strict grade if the seed will be ground. Crushers abroad buy on oil content and price, so cleaning level matters less.
Your grade should follow your end use. A retail pack where every seed is visible needs higher purity than a seed that disappears into a paste.
Points to cover in the spec
- Purity and the definition of foreign matter, including other seeds such as argemone.
- Moisture maximum, typically in the single digits and confirmed for your use.
- Damaged, shrivelled and immature seed limits.
- Live and dead insects, and insect-damaged seed.
- Pesticide residues against your market's MRLs.
- Microbiology if the seed goes into ready-to-eat food, and whether steam sterilisation is needed.
- No ETO treatment, stated in writing.
Allergen and safety points
Mustard is a listed allergen in the EU and the UK, so mustard seed must be declared on labels. If your plant also handles mustard-free products, you will need to manage cross-contact on your side.
Argemone seed looks like mustard seed and is toxic. Argemone contamination in mustard oil has caused serious poisoning in India in the past. Ask for argemone to be checked in the purity test, and prefer sortex-cleaned seed. General guidance on tolerances is in moisture, purity and foreign matter tolerances.
How we help
We find cleaning plants that can grade mustard to your size and purity, and we inspect the sortex line ourselves. Samples go to an NABL-accredited lab for residues and purity before booking. Ask for a free sourcing review.