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Can I trust a vendor's own certificate of analysis?
The short answer
Treat it as a starting point, not as evidence. Two things need checking: that the document verifies on the issuing laboratory's own systems, and that it describes the lot you actually received rather than an earlier one. A verified certificate for a different batch tells you about that batch and nothing about yours.
In detail
The commonest gap is not forgery but staleness — a genuine, verifiable report from a lot tested months ago, still displayed as current.
Vendor-commissioned testing also involves sample selection. The vendor chose which vial to send, which is a structural limitation regardless of the laboratory's competence.
That is the argument for blind purchases and for mandatory publication: neither depends on trusting the party with an interest in the outcome.
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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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