A certificate of analysis is supposed to be evidence, not decoration. But in a market with very little regulatory oversight, a COA-shaped document isn't the same thing as a real one. Here are nine things worth checking on any vendor's certificate — including ours — before you treat it as trustworthy.
Nine things to check
Is the testing lab named, and can you verify it exists?
A legitimate COA names a specific, real third-party laboratory. If a report just says "independently tested" with no lab named, or names a lab you can't find any independent record of, that's a real gap.
Does the lot number on the report match the lot number on your actual vial?
This is the single most common way a stale or unrelated report gets reused. If the batch on your product doesn't match the batch on the certificate, the certificate isn't telling you anything about what you actually received.
Is there a mass spectrometry result alongside the purity number?
Purity alone describes how clean a peak is — not conclusively what that peak is. A report with HPLC purity but no mass spec identity confirmation is a narrower, weaker claim than it might appear at a glance.
Are the numbers suspiciously perfect?
Real assays vary — even across vials from the same batch. A vendor whose every single product reads exactly "99.9%" with no variation, ever, across dozens of different compounds and batches, is a pattern worth questioning rather than trusting at face value.
Can you see the report before you buy — or only "on request"?
"Available on request" often means a report gets generated or selectively shared only when someone asks, rather than existing publicly for every batch in advance. A COA library published before the listing goes live is a meaningfully stronger signal.
Does the report cover more than just purity?
A thorough report includes identity confirmation, purity, and ideally endotoxin/content data — not purity alone standing in for a full quality picture.
Is the report dated, and does the date make sense?
A report with no date, or a date far older than when the batch was supposedly manufactured, suggests it may not correspond to the specific lot in front of you.
Does the same exact report appear for multiple different products?
Each batch of each compound should have its own distinct report. The same numbers appearing under different product names is a clear sign the "testing" isn't specific to what you're buying.
Is the underlying document a real lab report, or a styled graphic?
A genuine third-party lab report typically has its own letterhead, a task/report number, and a way to independently verify it (many labs offer an online verification lookup). A number simply typed into a nice-looking template on a vendor's own site isn't the same thing.
Why this matters more than it might seem
None of this is about assuming bad faith everywhere. Most of it comes down to a simpler problem: testing costs money, and it's easy to skip or fake when there's no one checking. A vendor cutting this corner isn't necessarily lying to you deliberately — they may just not be testing consistently, or reusing an old report because a new one wasn't run. Either way, the result is the same: you can't actually know what's in the vial.