Ventra LabsWhich suppliers are actually third-party tested?
How to check a supplier's testing claims
The difference between a supplier that tests and a supplier that publishes, and the checks that separate them.
Almost every supplier says it tests
Independent testing is the main thing suppliers in this market compete on, so a claim to test is close to universal and therefore tells you very little on its own. What separates one supplier from another is not whether testing is claimed but whether the result for the batch in your hands can be produced on demand.
The checks below are all things a purchaser can do from outside, without taking anyone's word for anything.
Is the result specific to the batch you were sent?
A single certificate shown for a compound is a statement about one historical batch, not about the vial you received. Material is made in batches and tested in batches, so a result that is not tied to a batch number cannot be tied to your order either.
The test: take the number printed on your box and try to reach the document for that number. If every purchaser of that compound sees the same certificate regardless of when they ordered, the certificate is a sample, not a record.
Is it the laboratory's document, or a transcription?
Figures retyped onto a supplier's own page are a supplier's claim about a laboratory's finding. The laboratory's own file — with its letterhead, its reference and its formatting — is the finding itself.
A supplier confident in the result has no reason to withhold the original. Publishing our own figures beside the unaltered document is the arrangement that lets a sceptical reader check one against the other.
Is the laboratory named and reachable?
A named laboratory with a report reference can be contacted independently, and will confirm whether it issued a document under that reference. An unnamed laboratory cannot be asked anything.
This is the check that most cleanly separates a record from a graphic. A convincing document with no attributable source is easier to produce than a real one.
Was it published before you asked?
A result that already exists on a public page when you arrive was not assembled in response to your question. A supplier that produces documentation only when challenged is telling you when the documentation was made.
The same applies to results that fall short. A supplier that publishes only its good batches has published a selection, and a selection is an advertisement.
What we do
Every batch has a page, whether its result is good, outstanding or bad. A batch that tested below what it was sold as says so on its own page, and a batch that has been withdrawn says that too — reachable by anyone holding the box, without an account and without asking us.
Where a published result comes back below the purity or the content a batch was sold as, what is owed is worked out against a formula published in advance and the purchaser is contacted. That is a matter of record rather than goodwill.
Holding a vial? Look it up on the batch page. What is recorded for every batch is set out under quality and documentation.