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Can a vendor fake a certificate of analysis?
The short answer
A PDF can be edited by anyone, so yes — a document alone proves nothing. What cannot be faked is a record held by the laboratory: a task number and key, a QR code, or a public database entry that resolves on the lab's own domain. Verify the certificate against the issuer before reading a single number on it.
In detail
Forged certificates in this market are usually not sophisticated. Numbers get changed on a genuine report, a real report from a different lot gets reused, or an image is presented where a verifiable document should be.
The defence is structural rather than forensic. If a laboratory issues certificates that resolve on its own systems, an altered copy fails the check immediately, because the lab's record still says what it always said.
This is why we publish every result we produce in a public database as a condition of testing, and why verification does not depend on the customer holding the right file.
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Iberian Analytical opens in Q1 2027 — €99 per test, 48–72 h target, and every result published in a public database, mandatory and free. Nothing is sold on this site today. Leave an email and we will write once, when the laboratory starts issuing certificates.
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