Twelve flags on an incoming COA.
One page to keep beside the instrument. Each flag condenses one line of the specimen certificates on Read a COA: what the line has to show, and the trick that hides behind it when it does not.
- 1No laboratory named, or the brand is the laboratory
A certificate needs an independent lab with an address you can reach. The brand testing itself is a claim, not a result.
- 2No batch or lot number
A COA is a statement about one batch. Without the number it describes nothing you can hold.
- 3The matrix is not the product
Extract tested, tincture sold. The numbers describe a drum, not a bottle.
- 4One old test date for every batch since
Acids convert and neutrals oxidise, so a panel drifts. Ask for a date you would accept as recent, per batch.
- 5Units that cannot be reconciled to the label
mg/g on a liquid with no density, or a label in mg/mL against a certificate in mg/g. Ask for the density or a matching unit.
- 6ND or <LOQ with no limit printed
Not detected against an unstated limit says very little. The LOQ column is the substance of every ND.
- 7Acid and neutral folded into one headline number
Total CBG that adds CBGA without saying so. Ask which figure the label counts.
- 8Only Δ9-THC on the THC line
Total THC is Δ9-THC plus 0.877 × THCA. A certificate that lists only Δ9 never writes the total down.
- 9Assay in area-percent presented as % w/w
A ratio of chromatogram peaks is not a mass. Ask for the assay against a reference standard, by weight.
- 10No impurity table on an isolate
A 98.6% assay with nothing named for the rest leaves the remainder unexplained.
- 11A solvents panel from the wrong process
Solvents the supplier never used, all clean; the one they did use, absent. Ask which solvents the process ran on.
- 12Pass with no specification, and no signature
Pass has to say pass against what, and someone has to put their name to it. An unsigned PDF is a PDF.
Demand, for a finished product
- Published per batch. A certificate of analysis for each batch, one you can actually open and read, with the full cannabinoid breakdown and a contaminant panel. If the seller cannot produce it, move on.
- Milligrams per serving. CBG stated up front in milligrams per serving, and reconcilable to the panel. The words "proprietary blend" are where the number you needed goes to hide.
- No disease claims. A reliable seller describes what is in the jar and leaves disease out of it. Any talk of effects stays conditional.
Demand, for an incoming isolate lot
- Assay by weight, with the remainder named. Percent by weight against a reference standard, an impurity table with a limit per named compound, and a water figure, so the mass balance can be read.
- A solvents panel that matches the process. Ask which solvents the extraction and crystallisation used, then read the panel for those. A clean panel of the wrong solvents is a clean panel of nothing.
- A retest date with a stability report behind it. A retest or expiry date, and the report that justifies it: storage conditions, timepoints, method and what was monitored. A date without a report is a guess with a calendar.
Informational only, not medical or legal advice; regulations and limits vary by jurisdiction, and the site holds none. Every number on this specimen is invented to teach the layout of a certificate. It describes no real product, laboratory, batch or result, and no value on it should be compared with a real one. Report a safety event. Peregrine Biopharma funds the platform and holds no editorial authority. cbgatlas.com/coa