How to Read and Verify a Certificate of Analysis (COA)

A plain-English guide to reading a Certificate of Analysis, spotting a faked COA, and confirming the result with the issuing lab — so you can vet a vendor before you trust them.

A Certificate of Analysis (COA) is supposed to be the one document that tells you whether what is in the vial matches what is on the label. In restricted verticals — peptides, SARMs, research chemicals, kratom — it has also become the single most-faked piece of paper on the internet. A clean-looking PDF with a 99% purity figure costs a dishonest vendor nothing to produce in a graphics editor, and most buyers never check it. This guide explains what a real COA contains, how vendors fake them, and — the part almost everyone skips — how to confirm a COA with the lab that supposedly issued it. LegitShops is an independent trust platform, so we will be blunt: a COA is evidence about a vendor's honesty and process , not a safety, efficacy, or legality claim about any product. We are not telling you to buy anything. We are showing you how to avoid being lied to. What a Certificate of Analysis Actually Is A COA is a lab report. A sample from a specific production batch is tested, and the lab documents what it found. A COA is only meaningful when it is tied to a batch (or lot) and produced by a lab that is independent of the seller. A "COA" that applies to "all our produ…