Questions to ask a contract manufacturer, and how to grade the answers

We have a guide listing the questions worth asking a contract manufacturer. This article is the part that guide does not do: how to grade the answers.

Because the questions are easy to find. Any brand can arrive with a printed list.

And a manufacturer who has heard the list before can produce a reassuring sentence for every item on it.

What separates a good one is whether the answers are specific, whether they are consistent with each other, and whether any of them cost the manufacturer something to say.

That last one is the most reliable signal in the whole exercise. An answer that is slightly against the manufacturer’s own interest is almost always true, because nobody invents those.

So: ten questions, and for each one, what a good answer sounds like, what a bad answer sounds like, and what the answer is actually telling you.

This is orientation, not legal or regulatory advice. Licensing requirements, testing obligations and permitted claims change. Verify the current position with a competent regulatory consultant before you commit to anything.

1. “Which ingredients do you re-test in house rather than accepting the supplier’s certificate, and why those?”

A good answer names ingredients and gives reasons. “Ashwagandha and shilajit for heavy metals, because of the root and the geology. Boswellia for AKBA, because total boswellic acids can be met without it. Shatavari for identity, because safed musli is sold as it.”

A bad answer is a category: “We test everything.” Nobody tests everything, on every batch, it would be ruinous. A manufacturer who says they do is either confused about what they do or assuming you will not press.

What it tells you: whether they have a risk-based testing policy, which is what a real quality system looks like. A good manufacturer has thought about which ingredients deserve in-house testing, because that thinking is the policy.

2. “Tell me about your most recent failed batch.”

This is the single most informative question on the list, and it is the one most likely to be deflected.

A good answer is a story with a date and a decision. “Three months ago, a turmeric lot failed lead. We rejected it, the supplier argued, we changed supplier for that ingredient, and we now test incoming turmeric every lot rather than periodically.”

A bad answer is one of two things. “We have never had a failure”, which means either they do not test, or they do not record, or they are lying. Any manufacturer testing seriously fails batches, because raw agricultural material varies.

Or a vague admission with no consequence: “Sometimes there are issues, we handle it.”

What it tells you: whether failures produce changes. A quality system is not the absence of failure; it is what happens afterwards.

3. “Will you give me a per-unit composition sheet, with quantities, before I order?”

A good answer is yes, with the sheet.

A bad answer is “we will share the formulation after confirmation” or “it is our proprietary blend”.

What it tells you: whether you will be able to compare quotations at all. Without per-unit quantities you cannot compare two quotes, cannot verify what you received, and cannot answer a regulator’s question about your own product.

And “proprietary” from a contract manufacturer to its own client is a confusion of roles. It is your product and your legal liability.

4. “If a commodity price rises mid-contract, do you reprice or reduce the extract load?”

And then listen to the phrasing, not the answer.

A good answer is direct and costs them something: “We reprice. We will come to you with the increase and you can decide.”

A bad answer is smooth: “We always maintain quality within the agreed price.” Which can be true, and is also exactly what somebody quietly cutting actives would say.

What it tells you: the most common invisible failure in this industry. Holding a price by reducing standardised extract and increasing excipient is undetectable without testing, and it is widespread.

Follow up with: “Would you put that in the agreement?” The answer to the follow-up is the real answer.

5. “Will you manufacture against any artwork I send you?”

A good answer is no. “We review artwork for claims before plates. We have refused orders.”

A bad answer is yes, framed as service. “We print whatever you supply, you know your market.”

What it tells you: this is the question we think is most diagnostic of overall standards.

Because a manufacturer willing to print any claim is not being accommodating. They are taking your money while transferring a legal risk to you, and under Indian law the brand owner carries the consequences of the label, including the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act restrictions on advertising a schedule of conditions.

And in our experience, a manufacturer who does not check claims is not checking much else. The two travel together, because both are failures of the same habit.

6. “What happens if a finished batch fails release testing after I have paid?”

A good answer has a defined process: who bears the cost, whether it is reworked or rejected, what the timeline is, and what you are told.

A bad answer is “that does not happen” or a shrug.

What it tells you: whether there is a release step at all. And this needs to be in writing before you order, not negotiated after a failure, when the incentives are against you.

7. “Do you sub-contract any part of this, and to whom?”

And ask it even if you think you know.

A good answer is specific: “We do the blending and encapsulation; the blister packing is done at X; the extract comes from Y.”

A bad answer is “everything is in-house” when it plainly is not, printing, for instance, almost never is.

What it tells you: where your audit stops. You can inspect the plant you visit. You cannot inspect a sub-contractor you were not told about, and quality problems frequently originate there.

8. “Who owns the formulation, and what happens if I leave?”

A good answer distinguishes cases. A private-label product off their existing list stays theirs. A formulation you paid to develop should be yours, and that should be written down.

A bad answer is ambiguity, or a confident claim to own something you commissioned.

What it tells you: whether you are building an asset or renting one. Brands discover the answer to this question at the worst possible moment, when they want to move, and find they cannot take the product with them.

Settle it in the agreement at the start, when it is a clause rather than a dispute.

9. “If I come to you too late for a season, will you tell me?”

The test question, and the one we put in our guide because the honest answer costs the manufacturer an order.

A good answer: “Yes. If you order joint-care in December for a winter sell-through, we will tell you the season is gone and suggest you plan for next year.”

A bad answer: enthusiasm. “No problem, we will expedite.”

What it tells you: whether they are managing their order book or your business. A manufacturer who takes an order they know will land after the demand has gone has told you where you rank.

10. “Can I visit? And can I bring an auditor?”

A good answer is yes to both.

A bad answer is a delay, a condition, or a reason.

What it tells you: in an industry where certification logos are easy to display and hard to verify, willingness to be inspected is the most credible quality signal available.

And bring an auditor for significant volume. Any manufacturer who accepts a client visit but objects to a professional audit has drawn a line in a revealing place.

Two questions to ask about the answers

And these are the meta-checks that catch a prepared performance.

Ask the same question twice, in different meetings, to different people. A real policy is consistent. A sentence prepared for sales is not, and the production manager will answer question 1 differently from the business development manager if there is no actual policy.

And ask one question you already know the answer to. Something from their licence, their public certifications, or a detail you have verified independently. How they handle a question where you can check the answer tells you how to weigh the ones where you cannot.

What the answers cannot tell you

Being fair, because this method has limits.

A good interview does not guarantee a good batch. Plants have bad months, staff turn over, and a manufacturer who answered well in January can disappoint in June.

So the interview is for selection, and after selection you need the ongoing controls: a certificate of analysis per batch that you actually read; your own independent testing on at least some batches; retention samples; and a written agreement covering failure, repricing and formulation ownership.

We have written separately about reading a certificate of analysis and about commissioning independent testing. Those are the parts that operate after the charm has worn off.

And the questions we find uncomfortable

Since we are a manufacturer, it is only fair to say which of these we least enjoy being asked.

Question 2, the most recent failed batch. Because the honest answer involves naming a supplier problem and a change we had to make, and it sounds worse than a clean record would.

Question 4 in writing. Committing in the agreement to reprice rather than reduce actives removes a lever that is commercially useful and ethically indefensible.

And question 9. Telling a client their season has gone, and losing the order, is the single most expensive honest answer in this business.

If a manufacturer answers all three comfortably and warmly, be slightly more suspicious, not less.

The short version

1. The questions are easy to find; grading the answers is the skill
2. Specificity, internal consistency, and answers that cost something
3. An answer against the manufacturer’s own interest is almost always true
4. Ask which ingredients are re-tested in house, and why those
5. “We test everything” is not a policy, nobody does, and it would be ruinous
6. A risk-based testing policy is what a real quality system looks like
7. Ask about the most recent failed batch, the most informative question
8. “We have never had a failure” means no testing, no records, or untruth
9. Raw agricultural material varies, so serious testing produces failures
10. A quality system is what happens after a failure, not its absence
11. Demand a per-unit composition sheet with quantities, before ordering
12. Without it you cannot compare quotes or answer a regulator
13. “Proprietary” from a contract manufacturer to its client confuses the roles
14. Ask whether they reprice or reduce extract load when commodities rise
15. Holding price by cutting actives is invisible without testing, and widespread
16. Then ask whether they will put the answer in the agreement
17. Ask whether they will print any artwork you send
18. A yes transfers legal risk to you while taking your money
19. The brand owner carries the label’s consequences under Indian law
20. A manufacturer who does not check claims is usually not checking much
21. Ask what happens if a finished batch fails release testing after payment
22. Settle that in writing before ordering, not after a failure
23. Ask what is sub-contracted and to whom, that is where your audit stops
24. Printing is almost never in-house, so “everything is” is a tell
25. Ask who owns a formulation you paid to develop
26. Brands learn that answer when they try to leave
27. Ask whether they will tell you if you are too late for a season
28. Enthusiasm there means they are managing their order book, not your business
29. Ask to visit, and to bring an auditor
30. Willingness to be inspected is the most credible quality signal available
31. Ask the same question twice, to different people, policy is consistent
32. Ask one question whose answer you can already verify
33. A good interview does not guarantee a good batch
34. So add per-batch certificates, your own testing, retention samples and a written agreement
35. And be more suspicious of a manufacturer comfortable with all the hard questions

Related guides: how to choose a contract manufacturer, private label vs custom formulation, licences for Ayurvedic manufacturing. Related reading: how to compare two quotations properly, reading a certificate of analysis, how to commission independent testing, and मैन्युफ़ैक्चरर कैसे चुनें.