How to Read and Verify a Peptide COA

A certificate you can verify names the laboratory, the client or vendor, the compound, a sample or batch identifier, the date of the test, and the methods used. It prints the results, not a slogan. It carries a code the lab’s lookup will accept — a task number and key, a certificate ID, a report number, or whatever that lab prints.

Without those, you are looking at a picture. Common gaps:

• No lab name, or a lab that does not appear on the testing-labs list because nobody can look the report up.
• No batch or sample id, so the page cannot be tied to the vial in your hand.
• No date, so an old report can be quietly reused.
• A purity percent with no chromatogram and no method (column, detector, or even the word HPLC).
• No identity test. Purity does not tell you the peak is the peptide named on the label.

High-performance liquid chromatography separates what is in the sample. The purity percent on a peptide COA is usually the area of the main peak divided by the area of the peaks the method detected. A single tall peak and a high percent means that, on that run, most of what the detector saw sat in one peak.

It does not, by itself, name the peptide. A different compound can produce a clean peak. Read the retention time only as a consistency check against the method the lab states — PepAssure does not publish an expected retention time per peptide, because that number depends on the column and the gradient. When a vendor page shows a purity figure from a reviewed certificate, the figure is the one a reviewer read off the document, not the number typed into an upload form.

PepAssure does not set a purity cutoff that makes a research peptide “acceptable” to use. Compare the number that is printed with the chromatogram that is attached, and then check identity.

Mass spectrometry is the identity line. The report states a theoretical mass for the compound it claims to have tested and an observed mass. Certificates commonly treat a match within about 1 dalton as the same mass. That window is how to read the line, not a safety standard and not a dosing instruction.

If the observed mass is far from the mass of the named peptide, the vial may be mislabeled or the report may be for a different compound. HPLC can still look “clean” in that case. Identity and purity are separate sentences. A COA that offers only one of them is unfinished.

Purity is a percent. Content is an amount, usually milligrams of peptide in the container. A sample can show a very high purity and still contain less peptide than the label states, if the rest of the powder is water, a salt, or another component the purity method did not count as its own peak. Net peptide content is the line that speaks to quantity. The label’s milligrams are a claim until that line agrees.

Some certificates also report endotoxin or heavy metals. Those are additional measurements the lab chose to run on that sample. They are not on every peptide COA. PepAssure does not translate an endotoxin number or a metals number into a clearance for any use, and this site does not tell you which panel to order for human administration. If the line is present, read the unit the lab printed and confirm the report is the lab’s. If the line is absent, the certificate simply does not answer that question.

Use the lab’s lookup, not a second copy of the PDF. Recognized labs with a page a stranger can open:

• Finnrick — lookup takes certificate ID. Results we read from this lab's own index are blind tests.
• Janoshik — lookup takes task number + unique key. Results we read from this lab's own index are blind tests.
• Horizon Analytical — lookup takes lot number or report number.
• Kovera Labs — lookup takes report ID (KVR-…).
• Freedom Diagnostics — lookup takes search code or company name.
• ILS Laboratories — lookup takes access code (under the QR).
• Bioviridian — lookup takes COA number.
• Ethos Analytics — lookup takes company name + sample ID.
• TrustPointe Analytics — lookup takes verification key.
• MDx BioAnalytical — lookup takes search code (COA…).

Kovera’s portal shows reports the client has published, so a code that returns nothing may mean the client did not publish it. BT Labs is recognized by an earlier decision and has no public lookup; a BT Labs PDF cannot be confirmed the way a Janoshik report can. Both limits are stated on the labs page.

• The same chromatogram image is attached to more than one peptide or more than one lot.
• The batch code on the PDF does not match the batch code on the vial or the product page.
• The test date is years before the order, and the vendor calls it the current batch.
• The lab lookup returns a different client, compound, or sample than the file you were sent.
• The image is blurry, cropped through the lab’s name, or shows editing artifacts around the purity number.
• The only “COA” is a promise to email one after you pay.

A reused report is a specific claim you can check. You do not need to decide whether the seller “seems shady.” Compare codes, dates, and the lookup.

Finnrick and Janoshik rows that PepAssure reads from those services’ own public indexes are blind: the vendor did not pick the sample. Blind Finnrick rows use weight 1. Blind Janoshik rows use weight 1. A certificate a vendor uploads, or that we read from a catalog the vendor feeds, uses weight 0.5 when the lab is recognized and a reviewer has confirmed the purity figure on the document. A vendor with only that class of evidence is capped at 85 on the lab pillars until a blind result is on file.

Neither number is a purity percent. They are how the score uses the row. A vendor-submitted COA can still be a real lab report — the cap exists because the vendor chose what to send. The rules are on the methodology page, which is the copy that stays aligned with the scorer.

If you already have a certificate, use the checker. Photograph it or drop the PDF. PepAssure matches it to a lab record on file, or says it cannot. The checker does not invent a match.

Open the free COA checker

Afterward, open the vendor’s page from the rankings and the lab’s page from the lab list. The certificate, the vendor, and the lab are three different questions.