Why third-party testing matters

Supplements are regulated as food, not as medicine. No authority checks what is in the tub before it reaches you. The manufacturer's word is the only guarantee, unless an independent laboratory has measured the contents.

This matters because the gap between label and contents is measurable, and researchers have measured it.

What is actually inside supplements?

Independent analyses of commercial supplements repeatedly identify products whose contents do not match their labels.

A genomic analysis of commercial infant probiotic products examined whether the organisms present matched those declared on the label.^[1] A separate quality assessment of Andrographis paniculata products reported both labelling inaccuracies and contamination.^[1]

These are different product categories analysed by different groups, which is the point: the problem is not confined to one supplement type or one market.

How often are supplements adulterated?

Mislabelling means the declared ingredient is wrong or absent. Adulteration means something undeclared has been added.

Analytical chemists have developed and validated methods specifically to detect prescription anti-diabetic drugs in botanical supplements sold for blood sugar management.^[1] Methods like these exist because the adulterants they detect have been found in commercial products.

This is why competent screening tests for more than the declared ingredients. Confirming that the labelled ingredient is present says nothing about what else is in the tub.

What does a certificate of analysis cover?

A certificate of analysis (CoA) is a laboratory report for one specific batch. A useful one reports four things:

• Identity, the ingredient is the species and compound the label claims.
• Potency, how much active compound is present, measured rather than assumed.
• Contaminants, heavy metals, pesticides, solvent residues.
• Microbiology, yeast, mould and bacterial counts.

A CoA applies only to the batch it was issued for. A report for a batch produced two years ago describes nothing about the tub in your hand, which is why the batch number on the report must match the batch number on the product.

What does a certificate of analysis not cover?

A CoA does not establish that the dose is useful, that the compound is absorbable in the form supplied, or that the ingredient produces any effect. Those are questions about clinical evidence, and a clean laboratory report is not an answer to them.

Treating a CoA as proof of efficacy is a category error. It is proof of composition.

How do we test our own batches?

Every batch we ship is tested by an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory. The report is published against the batch number printed on the tub, so the document you read describes the product you bought.

What a certificate cannot tell you is whether the ingredient does anything. That is a separate question, and we take it apart one supplement at a time, starting with nattokinase.