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Is this certificate of analysis real?

A certificate is only as good as the record behind it. Here is how to check one in under a minute, and the tells that a PDF has been edited or invented.

Submit samplesVerify a COA

Check a Gold Standard certificate

Type the accession number (format GSA-2026-018432) into the verify field. The public record must match the paper: compound, lot, issue date, every result. If nothing resolves, the document is not ours, whatever logo it carries. Recompute the SHA-256 hash of the PDF you were sent and compare it with the hash in the record; a mismatch means the file changed after we signed it.

If a Gold Standard COA doesn’t resolve in our public database, it isn’t one of ours.

What a fake or altered COA looks like

  • No accession or sample number, or one that the laboratory cannot look up.
  • A purity figure with no chromatogram, no method line and no instrument.
  • Results to four decimal places (99.9876%) that no HPLC area-percent method can support.
  • Fonts, alignment or number formats that change between rows; a lot number that is a different typeface from the rest.
  • Dates that do not add up: analysis before receipt, or a signature dated before the run.
  • Identity listed as “confirmed” with no mass spectrometry result.
  • A vendor-hosted PDF with no link to the laboratory’s own record, or a laboratory that has no public lookup at all.
  • A pass on every batch, forever. Real laboratories publish failures.

What a Gold Standard certificate contains

Accession number, issue date, instrument IDs and certificate version in the header. Declared compound, lot, matrix and container count. One line per test naming the method, instrument, result, specification and verdict, with the chromatogram printed for the purity assay. The chain-of-custody record: carrier tracking, receipt time, opening video reference, blind code and analyst initials. Two signatures and a SHA-256 hash of the signed file. The full walkthrough is in How to read our certificates.

Misuse of our name

Certificates are watermarked with the client’s branding and tied to a public record, so an altered or borrowed certificate is detectable by anyone with the accession number. We pursue the use of our name or mark on fake or altered certificates, and we publish retractions in the same public record. Report a suspicious certificate to team@goldstandardanalytics.com with the PDF attached.

Written by the analysts who run these methods and reviewed by the Chief Scientist before publication. Text is checked against the current SOP and the compendial chapters cited each time the page changes. Last reviewed September 2026.

Questions

Can you verify another laboratory’s COA?

No. We can only confirm certificates we issued. Most laboratories will confirm their own certificates by email if you send the sample number; if a laboratory offers no way to check, treat the certificate as unverified.

The accession resolves but the numbers differ from my PDF.

The public record is the certificate. A PDF whose results differ from the record has been altered after release. Send it to us; the record includes the hash of the file we signed.

Does a passing COA mean the product is safe?

It means the tested sample met the specification on the tests listed. Read the test list: a purity-only certificate says nothing about endotoxin, sterility or heavy metals.

Can I test the product myself?

Yes. Submit a sample and you will receive your own public certificate in 5–7 business days, with video of the package being opened.

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Submit a sample

An invoice is issued at submission and the prepaid label is emailed when payment lands.

Submit samplesVerify a COA