Reading lab reports
How to verify a Janoshik certificate of analysis
A step-by-step check of a Janoshik COA at the lab itself: find the task number, open the verify page, and match the sample, dates and result to the supplier’s copy.
- Published
- Reading time
- 6 min read
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Key takeaways
- A COA is only evidence once you’ve opened the same report on the testing lab’s own website.
- Match the task number, sample name, client, dates and result exactly. One different character means a different report.
- A report on a different vial size or batch doesn’t cover the vial you would receive.
- Even a verified report describes one sample. Identity and quantity need their own results on the report.
A certificate of analysis (COA) is a laboratory’s written result for one sample. On a supplier’s website it is also a claim: that this report belongs to this product. The first part is the lab’s word. The second part is the supplier’s, and it is the part a buyer can check.
Janoshik Analytical, a testing laboratory in the Czech Republic, is used by many research peptide suppliers. It keeps each released report on its own verification site, so anyone can open the lab’s copy and compare it with the one a supplier shows. This guide walks through that comparison. It takes about five minutes and you don’t need an account.
Why a COA only counts once you’ve checked it
A PDF or an image on a shop’s website is easy to copy, crop or edit. Reports get reused for a different batch or a different vial size, and occasionally they turn up on a product they were never run on. None of that is visible from the copy alone.
The lab’s own page is the reference. If it shows the same task, sample and result, the supplier’s copy matches the lab’s record. If it doesn’t, the copy tells you nothing, whatever it says. That is why the Vialwise score gives 12 points for publishing COAs, another 12 points when they can be checked at the testing lab, and another 12 points when the reports name the supplier showing them. See how we read the reports for the rules.
Find the report the supplier is relying on
Start on the product page, or on the supplier’s lab results page, and pick the report for the exact compound and declared amount you are looking at. A report on a 5 mg vial doesn’t cover a 10 mg vial of the same compound. Then look for one of two things.
- A verify link. Janoshik’s verify links open on
verify.janoshik.com. After/tests/in the address comes the task number, then the sample name and a string of letters and numbers that identifies the report. - A task number printed on the report. Janoshik numbers every test it runs. If a supplier only shows a PDF or an image, note the task number and any verification code printed with it.
If you can find neither, you can’t check the report at the lab. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong with it, but it does mean you are taking the supplier’s word for it. Ask them for the verify link: a supplier with a released report can send it in seconds.
Some published copies have the key, the QR code or the client field covered with a bar, a blur or a patch, or cropped off the edge of the image. A covered key means you can’t open the report at the lab. With the client covered or showing another name, and no supplier name in the manufacturer, sample or vial-label details either, the copy alone doesn’t tie the result to the shop showing it. Neither tells you why. Ask the supplier for a copy with the client and key visible, or for the verify link. Every supplier’s Vialwise profile lists what the first reports on its site show, field by field, under “Reports we opened”.
Open the report on Janoshik’s own site
- 1
Check the address before you read anything
The page should load on Janoshik’s own domain, with the verification pages on the
verify.janoshik.comsubdomain. A lookalike spelling, a short link that lands on the shop’s own site, or a “verified” badge that opens an image hosted by the shop is not the lab’s copy. - 2
Find the report itself
The lab’s page shows the report: the task number, the sample as the client described it, the dates, and the results the lab measured. Labs change their layouts from time to time, so don’t expect every field in the same place. What matters is that the two copies agree.
- 3
Keep the supplier’s copy open beside it
Put the two side by side, in two tabs or on two screens, and read them line by line. It is much easier to spot a changed digit when both versions are in front of you.
Match the details, field by field
These are the fields to compare. Every one of them should match exactly. The result is copied from the lab’s page, so there is no reason for it to be rounded, re-worded or improved on the supplier’s copy.
| Field | What to compare | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Task number | Identical digits | It identifies one test. A different number is a different report. |
| Sample name | Same compound and declared amount | The name is what the client sent in. It should describe the product you would buy. |
| Client | The supplier you are buying from, under a name it uses itself | It shows whose sample was tested. A covered, cropped or different client doesn’t tie the report to this shop unless the manufacturer, sample or vial-label details name it. |
| Batch or lot | Same code, where either copy shows one | It ties the result to a production run, not just to a compound name. |
| Dates | Same received and report dates | An old report can be genuine and still describe stock that has long since sold. |
| Result | Same figure, to the last decimal place | Purity, and any quantity in mg, should be identical on both copies. |
What a mismatch looks like
Most mismatches are small, which is exactly why they get missed. Look out for:
- the right task number, but a purity figure that differs in the second decimal place;
- a sample name that says 5 mg on a product page selling 10 mg;
- a batch code on the supplier’s copy that the lab’s page doesn’t show;
- a verify link that opens a page on the shop’s own domain;
- a lab page that loads but names a different compound;
- a link that returns an error or a “not found” page.
One different character is enough to stop relying on a report. There can be innocent explanations, such as a typo when the report was uploaded, or a report the supplier hasn’t released yet. The fair response is to ask the supplier which report covers the vial they would send you, and to check that one before you order.
What a verified report still doesn’t show
A report that matches the lab’s copy shows that the lab tested a sample and got this result. It doesn’t show:
- that the sample came from the same batch as the vial you receive, unless a batch code ties the two together;
- how the material was stored after the lab received it;
- which molecule is in the vial, unless the report includes an identity test such as mass spectrometry (see how HPLC and mass spec testing works);
- how much peptide is in the vial, unless it reports a quantity (see purity versus peptide content).
A verified COA is the start of the evidence, not all of it. That is why the Vialwise checklist also looks at business identity, Australian fulfilment and published policies.
Try it on a real report
You can practise on any supplier’s report. If you would like a known starting point, the reports below come from the published library of Au Peptide Labs, the store run by the company that publishes Vialwise. The same steps apply, and every link opens at the lab. The test results page lists every report in that library, and each entry in the compound library shows the reports filed against it.
Research use only. Everything on Vialwise concerns research-grade material sold for laboratory and analytical use only. It is not a registered medicine, is not supplied for human or veterinary use, and nothing here is medical advice. Nothing in this guide is legal advice either; where regulation matters to your work, get advice for your own situation.
