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Our Manufacturing Process
Step One - Identification and Raw Materials Testing
When herbal raw materials arrive at our manufacturing facilities, they normally arrive in sacks, bales, or drums (in the case of liquids). Samples of each LOT are taken to the laboratory for identification. The first identification process consists of smelling, tasting, and examination through macro and microscopic tests, then subjected to high-performance chromatography. This sophisticated testing identifies herbs and other natural ingredients and indicates its quality by profiling its chemical compounds.
Step Two - Quarantine
While samples of the raw materials are being tested, the bulk of the raw materials are quarantined. Depending on the source, some ingredients are quarantined for up to six months! Normally, for domestic herbs, the quarantine period is much shorter. Once the quarantine period is over, the herbs and ingredients are tested again, cleaned, and made ready for processing. Some materials may be heat-treated to kill bacteria and other harmful microorganisms.
Step Three - Milling
After testing, quarantine, and cleaning, the herbs and ingredients are milled (ground) into a fine powder, This is done in a careful manner as not to raise the temperature too high, because heat could destroy some very important plant compounds. Once the herbs and ingredients have been milled to a fine powder, it could be process through encapsulation, made into pills, or other tinctures.
Step Four - Encapsulation and Inspection
Using capsules as an example, our manufacturing process uses sophisticated encapsulation machines that can produce thousands of capsules per hour. This semi-automatic machines are housed in a temperature, pressure, dust, and humidity controlled area. The only human interaction with the machine is to watch the raw materials ride the conveyer belts loading into the hoppers. Upon visual inspection, the capsules that are cracked, broken, or not completely filled are discarded. Due to these controlled conditions, each employee responsible for the encapsulation machines maintain a maximum 3 hour shift each.
Step Five - Packaging
Capsules that pass the inspection are fed into bottles by machines that count their number, safety-seal the bottles, stamp the LOT, Batch number, and expiry dates onto attached labels. An additional quality check completes the packaging process.
Step Six - Record Keeping
Each batch is recorded in cases where there may be a report of problems, quality control audits, and safety. This is a very important step for the ultimate consumer. The normal shelf life of all Nutrican products is two years.
These six steps assures Nutrican consumers that we are obsessed with Quality at every phase of production.
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