How to Read a Certificate of Analysis

A certificate of analysis — a COA — is the only practical way to know what is in a product you did not make yourself. It is a report from an independent laboratory on a specific batch. That last word matters more than anything else on the page.

Start with the laboratory. An ISO 17025 accreditation means the lab has been independently assessed as competent to run the tests it is reporting. It is the standard buyers are generally told to look for, and it is worth more than a logo.

Then check the batch code. A COA that does not carry the same code as the package in your hand tells you nothing about the package in your hand. This is the most common way a genuine-looking report turns out to be irrelevant — it is a real report, for a different batch.

Check the date. A report from two years ago for a product bought today is a warning sign about the seller, not necessarily about the product.

Then read what was actually tested. Potency alone is not a safety test. A full panel covers heavy metals — lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury — plus pesticides, mycotoxins, residual solvents and microbials. A report showing only active content is telling you the least useful part of the picture.

We publish the full panel for every batch we sell, addressable by the code printed on the package. If you have a package with a code we do not recognise, we would genuinely like to hear about it.