How To Find A Certificate Of Analysis
Key Takeaways
- You should be able to find your certificates of analysis online. Use your search engine to your advantage!
- A CBD or hemp company should always be ready and willing to share test results with you. Just ask!
- If finding a COA for a specific product proves difficult, that company may not be worth working with.
Finding, reading, and verifying certificates of analysis is a crucial step for ensuring your CBD product’s safety. However, sometimes, finding the right COA that matches your products can be a pain. If you’re looking for a certificate of analysis, we have a few tips that may make your search a little more fruitful.
How To Find Your Certificate Of Analysis
You should be able to find a certificate of analysis without fail in four places. If you exhaust all of your options, we recommend moving on and picking a different company or product.
Check the Product Packaging
Most companies will include a QR code on their products, especially smokable products because of their similarity to recreational cannabis products. When you scan this QR code, you should be taken to your COA or at least a directory page that links to a PDF of your certificate.
You may also find a batch number printed somewhere on your product. You should be able to use this batch number to find your certificate of analysis on the manufacturer’s website.
Visit the Company’s Website
Many CBD companies host their certificate of analysis on their website. Those who do will name their directory pages “Lab Results,” “Test Results,” “COAs,” or “Potency Tests.”
You should also be able to find the certificate of analysis that you want linked to the relevant product page.
If you’re having trouble finding the correct page, you can always use the power of Google (or your preferred browser) and Boolean Search to help you.
Using Google
If you’re looking for a specific company’s COAs, you should be able to do so with a simple Google site search. Just follow these three easy steps:
- Open a new tab and navigate to Google.com.
- Type “site:(sitename.com)” followed by a space in the search bar.
- Now type “Lab Results,” “Tests,” etc. after the space. Try different terms until you find the page you want.
This site search will limit Google’s results down to those terms on that specific site. Neat, eh?
Using Boolean Search
Boolean search is very similar to Google site search. Open your preferred search engine and enter the following into the search bar:
- In quotations, type the site that you are searching through. For example: “Sunsetlakecbd.com.”
- Leave a space, use the word “and,” and in a second pair of quotation marks, enter what you’re looking for.
- An example would be “Sunsetlakecbd.com” and “Tests”
The above search will show you our Quality Tests page, where our COAs are listed. You may have to sift through some results for your company, but you should be able to find what you’re looking for.
Contact Customer Support
If your web searches fail and you can’t seem to find what you’re looking for, you can always try getting in touch with customer service. Reputable companies should have both an email message form on their website and a phone number. Some may have AI chatbots that can also help you out.
If you don’t find any contact page on your website of interest, you may want to avoid that company.
Request Your Certificate of Analysis From Retailers
Say you’re not interested in buying CBD online. We can’t say that we blame you. Supporting local is great, plus you always assume some risk when you send your money across the country online.
That said, you should still be able to see certificates of analysis when you go in-person shopping. Store clerks or managers should have access to their wholesaler’s COAs. If they don’t have them on hand, they should at least be able to tell you where you can find them.
Bonus Tips About Verifying Your Certificates Of Analysis
- Check Lab Accreditation: Ensure the COA is from an accredited, independent lab. Look for ISO certification (International Organization for Standardization) or similar credentials.
- Match Batch Numbers: The COA should correspond to the specific batch number of the product you purchased.
- Review the Date: Make sure the COA is recent, as older reports may not reflect the current product’s quality.
What’s Next?
Now that you’re an expert in finding COAs, what’s next? We recommend checking out our post about reading COAs. Or, if you’re ready to check out Sunset Lake’s lineup of farm-direct CBD products, start shopping here.