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What makes a testing laboratory independent?
The short answer
Not who pays — laboratories are always paid by whoever sends samples. Independence is structural: results published regardless of outcome, a method published in full, disclosed ownership and any relationship to the parties being tested, and reports that verify against the laboratory's own records. Rules that bind the laboratory, rather than assurances about intentions.
In detail
Financial independence is unattainable in any commercial testing market, so claiming it is either naive or misleading. What can be built is a set of commitments that hold whatever the result says.
Publication that does not depend on the outcome is the strongest of them, because it removes the decision that selection bias needs in order to operate.
We publish our ownership and conflict-of-interest policy on the site rather than asking readers to take independence on trust.
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