How to Read a Tea Test Report: A Buyer's Checklist

Published 2026-09-16 · 7 min read

A test report is only useful if you can read it. Most buyers receive a PDF, glance at the word "PASS", and file it. That habit has cost importers a great deal of money. Here is what to look for — and the five things that most often go wrong.

The anatomy of a report

Every credible report contains the same seven elements. If one is missing, ask why.

• Sample identification — what was tested, from which production batch, and when it was drawn
• Laboratory details — name, accreditation number, and the country it operates in
• Test method — the analytical technique used (for residues, usually LC-MS/MS or GC-MS/MS)
• Parameter list — exactly which compounds were screened
• Limits applied — the MRL each result is measured against
• Results — measured values against those limits
• Conclusion — pass/fail and any qualifiers

What should actually be tested

Panel	What it covers	Why buyers care
Pesticide residues	Multi-residue screen, typically hundreds of compounds	Drives EU and US market access
Anthraquinone	Drying-related contaminant	Frequent cause of EU rejection; must be listed separately
Heavy metals	Lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury	Food-safety and retail spec requirements
Microbiology	Total plate count, coliforms, Salmonella, moulds and yeasts	Required for food-grade retail
Mycotoxins	Aflatoxins, ochratoxin A	Risk in stored and aged pu-erh

Five things that go wrong

1. The method does not match the claim

A report may state "no residues detected" while its method could only detect a quarter of the compounds relevant to your market. Check the parameter list length and the detection limits — not just the conclusion.

2. The limits are out of date

Regulations move. A report judged against a 2023 MRL list may be worthless for a 2026 shipment — for example, where neonicotinoid limits were tightened with effect from March 2026.

3. The sample is not the batch

This is the most common and the most damaging. A report for "Yunnan pu-erh tea" with no batch or lot number cannot be tied to what is in your container. Insist on a batch identifier and then check it appears on the packing list too.

4. Accredited laboratory, or just a laboratory?

The lab's accreditation (ISO/IEC 17025, or an equivalent national scheme) is what makes results defensible to a customs laboratory. Ask for the accreditation number.

5. Cherry-picked reports

A supplier who always sends the same clean report for every order is telling you that the report is not batch-specific. Ask for the report that corresponds to your production date.

How to verify a report independently

• Check the report serial number with the issuing laboratory directly
• Confirm the accreditation body and the issuing lab's scope covers tea matrices
• Compare the batch number across the report, packing list and invoice
• If results look suspiciously uniform across many samples, ask how the samples were drawn

What we send, and when

Each quotation is accompanied by the batch report for the grade quoted. Samples ship with the report for that same lot. Before shipment, the report is re-issued or confirmed against the produced batch, and the batch number on the report matches the packing list.

We would rather you check than trust us. Ask for a batch report — we will send the real one.