How to tell if a peptide COA is real

A certificate of analysis (COA) is a PDF or an image. Anyone with an editor can change a number on one, and anyone with a real one can show it next to a different product. So the question is never "does this look official". It is "can I check this somewhere the seller does not control, and does it describe the vial in my hand".

Here are eight checks, roughly in order of how much they catch.

1. Check it at the source

This is the check that matters most. A genuine report can be looked up with whoever issued it, using a number printed on the document. Janoshik uses a unique key on its own site. Veritalys prints a report number starting with VT- in the top right corner, plus a QR code, and anyone can type the number on the verify page. No account is needed and the lookup is free.

If the issuer has no lookup, or the seller only offers the PDF from their own website, you have a claim, not evidence.

2. Check the web address, not just the QR code

A QR code can point anywhere. A forged certificate can carry a code that opens a convincing copy of a verification page on a look-alike domain. After you scan, read the address bar. A Veritalys record opens only on veritalys.com. If in doubt, type the address yourself and enter the number by hand.

3. Compare every field with the record

Once the record opens, compare it with the document line by line: compound, batch, declared amount, each result and each date. The record is what the certificate was generated from, so any difference means the document was changed after it was issued.

4. Match the batch number to your vial

A real certificate for batch A says nothing about batch B. The most common misuse is not forgery. It is one genuine test shown for months while other batches ship. If the batch on the certificate is not the batch on your vial, the certificate is not about your vial.

5. Look at the dates

You want the date the laboratory received the sample, not only the date the report was printed. A certificate dated before the batch was made, or more than a year old for a product sold as fresh stock, is a reason to ask questions.

6. Look for content in milligrams

Purity alone is a percentage. It cannot tell you whether the vial is full. A useful certificate also reports content in mg per vial, next to the amount the label declares. Purity is not content explains why this catches under-filled vials.

7. Look for numbers, not words

"Endotoxin: negative" and "Microbiology: pass" are somebody's decision against a limit you cannot see. A number in EU per vial, or a count with the specification printed beside it, is a measurement you can judge yourself. See Endotoxin testing for peptides.

8. Watch for signs of editing

Mixed fonts in one line, numbers that sit slightly off the baseline, a blurred area around a result, or the same certificate number on two different products. None of these proves forgery alone, but each one means you should do check 1 before anything else.

What a genuine certificate still cannot tell you

It is evidence about one vial: the one the laboratory received. It does not cover the rest of the batch, the next batch, or how your vial was stored after it left the seller. Vendors who care about this test every batch, and the certificate you are shown should name the batch you are buying.

When the checks fail

If a certificate cannot be verified, or describes a different batch, you can test the vial yourself. Pick the compound on the price list, post one vial, and you get your own report with its own number. Identity, content and purity starts at €169.