Why do some COAs look like they were made in Microsoft Paint

Posted by compoundhands26 in COA and Purity Testing

I have been looking at documentation from a few different suppliers for my current bench project and honestly I am losing my mind. Some of these certificates of analysis look like absolute garbage tier photoshop jobs with misaligned text and zero lab identification. How is anyone trusting these third party tests when the formatting changes every single month. Every time I ask for an actual verifiable chain of custody I get total silence or some vague excuse about privacy. At this point I am starting to think half these labs do not even exist and people are just printing numbers to satisfy buyers. Am I the only one who thinks this whole testing ecosystem is a massive joke right now.

9 Comments

stackgal27

Spot on analysis. Half the time the peak integration looks completely fabricated by someone who failed intro chemistry.

cyclefox

Wait you guys are actually reading the HPLC charts instead of just looking at the big 99 percent number at the top.

compoundhands26

That is what drives me crazy. The big shiny percentage is all anyone cares about while the actual retention times and baseline noise are completely ignored.

rust_pdx86

Bro some of them even leave the default watermark from the template software on the PDF. Absolute clown show.

titrationclub

Honestly if the font on the header does not match the rest of the document I close the tab immediately.

salthands

You are way too cynical man. Plenty of reputable sources out there that pay good money for legitimate mass spec validation.

bench2146

Legit ones exist for sure but they are like finding a unicorn in a landfill.

clinicalhead

Good rule of thumb is to look up the actual testing facility registry number. Usually leads to a dead end or a parking lot in Florida.

titration_pdx44

Best advice is to just send a tiny sample to an independent lab yourself if you really need peace of mind for your study.