The short answer
A tea factory audit checks six areas: the legal layer (licenses and registrations), the floor (hygiene, flow, segregation), processing capability (does the line match the formats it claims), quality control (the cupping station and the lab arrangement), the warehouse (storage conditions), and traceability (can a lot number walk backward to leaf and forward to your container). You can run it on-site or remotely - live video walks have closed most of the gap for standard programs - and either way the output is a written report against the checklist, not an impression. The purpose is proportionate: most buyers do not need a perfect facility, they need one whose real capabilities match their program's formats, volumes and markets. This checklist is the version the desk's own factory audit process follows before any partner packs a client program.
Before you go: the document layer
Collect and check the papers first, because they tell you where to look hard on the floor. For a refining and packing facility: business registration; food production licensing; export food production registration where goods leave China; and any system certificates the facility claims - ISO 22000 or HACCP are common in the partner network, verified per facility rather than assumed. For claims that matter to your market: organic certificates with the scope and issuing body readable, Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade documentation where the program needs it, and lab arrangements - in-house bench tests plus a named external laboratory for pesticide, heavy metal and microbiology panels. A pattern worth memorizing: certificates cluster at the office, practice lives on the floor, and the audit exists to check the distance between the two. The certificate chains themselves are discussed on the certifications page.
On the floor: hygiene and flow
Walk the line in production order - raw material in, crude storage, refining, blending, making (roasting or scenting where present), packing, finished-goods storage - and look for three things. Segregation: crude and finished materials separated, food-grade containers, no cross-contact with strong odors, which tea absorbs shamelessly. Hygiene as habit, not theater: hand-wash stations in use, protective clothing worn where claimed, pest control devices logged, cleaning records current rather than freshly printed for your visit. Flow without backtracking: material moving forward through the process, no detours through corridors that break the food-safety logic. Ask to see the lot you would actually use - the specific grade, the specific format - running or recently run, not a showcase line. Machinery need not be new; maintained and clean beats new and dusty every audit.
The QC corner and the lab question
Find the cupping station and stay a while. You want to see a real sensory setup - standardized vessels on fixed ratios such as 3 grams in 150 ml, spittoons, a record sheet per lot, and a shelf of retention samples from recent production, including failures. The retention library is the single most telling object in any tea facility: a fat, dated shelf means lots are cupped, recorded and remembered; an empty one means quality is asserted, not managed. Ask who has authority to reject a lot, and ask to see a rejected-lot record - a healthy QC culture produces them regularly. Then clarify the lab arrangement: in-house benches handle moisture and routine checks, while pesticide, heavy metal and microbiology panels go to an accredited external laboratory, with reports per batch. The working panel is listed in the note on testing parameters, and the desk's ongoing controls on the quality control page.
Warehouse and traceability
The warehouse tells you how your tea will live before it ships. Check: temperature and humidity behavior (dry, cool, stable - logs rather than assurances), sealed packaging discipline (foil liners closed after opening, desiccants where the format needs them), odor separation (no chemicals, no spices, no neighbors that perfume your program), and stock rotation that is real - date marking you can follow with your own eyes on three random cartons. Then run one traceability drill, live: pick a finished lot number and ask the team to walk it backward to component lots and their origin records, then forward to packing records and any lab panel. A facility that does this in minutes owns its supply chain; one that needs a week to assemble it is renting a story. Traceability is also what makes the desk's program documents - blend sheets and master samples, as in the blending process - enforceable rather than decorative.
Remote audits and third parties
| Audit mode | What it covers well | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Live video walk | Floor hygiene, line reality, the cupping station, live traceability drill | Standard programs, first qualification at distance |
| Document audit | Licenses, certificates, lab reports, records and logs | Always, as the layer before and after any visit |
| Third-party inspection | Independent eyes, standardized scoring, unannounced options | Large or standing programs; when you need a second opinion |
| On-site visit | Everything above plus relationships and context | Hero programs, new formats, annual reviews of key partners |
Modes combine: the desk's standard is document audit, then live video, then on-site for the partners that pack hero programs - a layering described on the factory audit page.
After the audit: the report and the follow-up
An audit ends in writing or it did not happen. Score the six areas, list findings as pass, minor or major, agree correction deadlines for anything minor, and treat majors as disqualifying until fixed - a facility's response to a finding tells you more than the finding does. Re-audit on a cycle: annually for key partners, or after any change of site, line or ownership. Fold the results into your supplier file so the next program starts from evidence instead of memory, and keep the report next to the commercial file - the pair is what the note on choosing a supplier calls auditable trust. If you would rather inherit a vetted network than run audits yourself, that is literally the desk's job: bring the program through the quote form and the relevant partners' current audit status comes back with the sample plan, as part of the procurement process this site documents.