How to Qualify a Maca Supplier: A Scored Checklist

Three Disqualifying Red Flags

1. Cannot report macamides by HPLC. As covered in our standardisation guide, glucosinolates are a Brassicaceae-wide marker that cannot confirm the material is maca. A supplier without macamide capability cannot verify their own incoming material — they are running an assay that broccoli would pass.
2. Vague about producer versus merchant. Both are legitimate positions; being evasive about which is not, particularly when origin carries a premium.
3. Sells premium phenotypes with no segregation story. If you pay for red or black, ask how they are kept separate from yellow. A supplier who has not thought about it is selling you a colour claim, not a material.

The Scoring Framework

Weighted to 100 points. Note that origin and provenance carry 15 — unusual in this series, and justified by the genuine premium attached to Peruvian provenance.

1. Identity and Marker Capability — 30 points

2. Origin and Provenance — 15 points

That last row is a comprehension test as much as a compliance one. Peru maintains protections around maca germplasm reflecting its status as a native crop of national importance; a supplier who knows this is engaged with the ingredient's actual context.

3. Phenotype and Processing Control — 25 points

The starch row deserves its weight. Gelatinisation is defined by starch removal, so a starch figure is direct quantitative evidence that the process happened — one of the few clean numerical answers available anywhere in this ingredient's quality picture.

4. Anti-Bulking and Contaminants — 20 points

Anti-bulking controls carry more weight on maca than on most botanicals, because a cream-coloured starchy powder is the easiest material in this range to dilute invisibly.

5. Consistency and Terms — 10 points

Interpreting the Score

Apply a floor on section 1: below 18 of 30, decline. Without macamide capability a supplier is verifying maca with a test that broccoli passes — and no amount of documentation elsewhere compensates for that.

Add a conditional floor on section 3 if you are buying premium phenotypes: below 15 of 25, do not pay a phenotype premium to that supplier, whatever their overall score.

The Sample Stage

• Check the sample CoA reports macamides. Absent there, absent on bulk.
• Check colour against the declared phenotype — yellow cream to light beige, red pale pink-beige, black grey-beige to light brown.
• Test dispersion, particularly on a gelatinised claim. Gelatinised material disperses noticeably better than raw.
• Taste it. Maca is malty and mildly earthy. Flat, floury material suggests dilution.
• Ask for raw and gelatinised side by side if you are deciding — the difference in handling is immediately obvious.
• Did they ask about your format and dose? A supplier who does not ask cannot advise on raw versus gelatinised, which is the main formulation decision here.

First-Order Protocol

1. Nominate an independent laboratory — Eurofins, SGS or Intertek — with macamides in the scope, not glucosinolates alone. An independent glucosinolate figure reproduces exactly the blind spot; it would be satisfied by cabbage.
2. Verify the starch figure independently on a gelatinised grade — clean evidence of processing.
3. Request and retain the origin chain documentation with your batch record, not just the CoA line.
4. Retain a sealed, dated sample; useful for colour comparison against later premium-phenotype lots.
5. Re-verify at batch three, then annually, and always on a change of origin, phenotype claim or processing status.

SV Botanica reports macamides by HPLC on every maca batch, declares Peruvian origin, colour phenotype and processing status, reports starch on gelatinised grades, and is explicit that we supply maca as exporter and merchant rather than as origin producer. Buyer-nominated third-party pre-shipment testing is welcome. See the product page, the buyer's guide, or adulteration and authenticity.