What is a Certificate of Analysis (COA)?
A COA is the results of a laboratory test on a certain product. While being a general type of report given for different products the cannabis industry has self imposed the standard of getting the tests done and making the results readily available to customers. If you search online for guides or help on what to look for in a CBD supplier every guide will tell you to look for available COAs. That’s all well good but they can be difficult to interpret if you are not familiar and include a lot of information not all of which is useful to you. This is a short explanation of what the different parts of a COA mean and what parts you should focus on using one of our own as an example.
A-Along the top you will find the name of the lab that performed the analysis (botanacor) along with who the test was performed for.
B-The batch number that the test applies to. This number should also be found on the label of the product you are looking at for easy matching of a product to its test.
C-Along the left you can see a list of all the cannabinoids in this test. Along the top are the specific results of each in multiple forms.
LOD-Limit of Detection. The lowest amount the lab can identify (Can be ignored)
LOQ-Limit of Quantification. The lowest amount the lab can confidently put a number to. (Can be ignored)
Results(mg)-The total amount of each thing tested for found in the container. The results are given in milligrams(mg) where 1mg is about the weight of a single grain of salt.
Results(mg/g)-The amount of each thing tested for per gram(g) of product. A gram is about the weight of a paperclip.
D-(The most important part) These are the actual results of the test. The left column, under Result(mg), are the contents of the entire container. So here a jar of our Whipped Body Butter contains 4814mg of CBD and 129mg of THC per container. The right column, under Results(mg/g), is the contents per gram of product.
E-The certifications of the lab that performed the test. These show that the lab is nationally recognized and accredited. The main one to look for, called ISO 17025 from the American Association of Laboratory Accreditation, is represented by middle A2LA symbol. These are import to see on a report to know the results are genuine and honest.
