A certificate of analysis, usually shortened to COA, is a lab report. It is the only document that tells you what is actually in the bottle in front of you. If you buy hemp products for your animal, learning to read one is the most useful fifteen minutes you can spend.
What a COA is
A sample from a production batch goes to a laboratory that has no financial stake in the result. The lab measures what is in the sample and issues a report. That report is the COA.
The word that matters there is batch. A COA describes one specific production run, identified by a lot number. It does not describe every bottle the company has ever made.
What to look at, in order
1. The lot number
Find the lot number on the report, then find the lot number on the bottle. If they do not match, the report is telling you about a different batch of oil than the one you are holding. This is the single most common gap, and it is easy to miss because the document looks official either way.
2. The date
A report from three years ago tells you about a batch from three years ago. Check when the sample was tested, not when the page was posted.
3. Who did the testing
The lab should be independent of the company selling the product, and it should be named. "Third-party tested" printed on a label is a marketing phrase. A lab name on a report is a fact you can look up.
4. The cannabinoid panel
This is the table showing how much of each cannabinoid the lab found. Two things to check:
- Does the CBD content match the label? If the bottle says 300 mg and the panel works out to 180 mg, the label is wrong.
- What is the THC content? Hemp is legally defined as containing no more than 0.3% THC. The panel is where you confirm it.
5. The contaminant screens
Hemp is good at pulling things out of soil, which is useful for cleaning up land and less useful when the plant ends up in a bottle. A full report screens for heavy metals, pesticides, residual solvents from extraction, and microbials. Each should show a result and a pass or fail against a limit.
If a report only shows cannabinoids and no contaminant screens, it is a partial picture.
What it means when there is no COA
Some companies do not publish lab reports. Some will send one if you email and ask. Some post a single report from years ago and leave it there.
You do not have to assume bad intent to notice that a company which cannot produce a current, lot-matched lab report also cannot tell you what is in its product. Those are the same sentence.
Why we post ours
Pleasant Pet Oil™ is grown, formulated, and bottled on one farm in Ijamsville, Maryland, so there is a straight line from the field to the bottle and every batch has a lot number attached to it. We post the report for the current lot on our Lab Results page.
If you are a veterinarian evaluating the product, the For Veterinarians page has the full product profile.
For animal use only. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.