A COA is Certificate of Analysis is a document issued by Test Laboratory, it confirms that a regulated product meets its product specification. So basically that Biotin (a simple white powder) is actually Biotin. The importance of the COA is to confirm the purity and the biologically active Biotin D.
Most Biotin comes from China with a COA to confirm the quality. However it is important that the product is retested from a independent agency (preferably outside of China) to confirm the Chinese supplier COA is correct.
What does the COA tell us?
Specific Rotation confirms it is biologically available - d-Biotin. The higher this number is the more d-biotin is in the sample. The lower the number then the higher the concentration of the non active forms of biotin in the sample.
Assay - this confirms the purity of the substance being tested. For our grade, Biotin needs to be 97% or higher. The higher the number the better. MS Biotin Complex and MS Biotin Boost are 99%. (Note the Assay has a test accuracy of negative or plus 5%, so you can get a purity of up to 100.5%).
Finally that the product complies with a USP standard; the US governing agency who sets the standards. Every 6 months USP adjust their standards. The current standard is 40 or 41. Testing to USP38 for example would indicate that the sample meets USP specification of a couple of years ago, which is also ok.
Multiplesupplements.com retests all samples before purchasing, then retests again on receipt of the Biotin and of every vessel received. The testing is completed by an independent Quality Assurance specialist in NZ to make sure the results are correct and meet the purity that has been purchased, and 2 meets Multiplesupplemets.com biologically active biotin D that is needed.
What is important when looking at a COA?
- is it an independent retest to the supplier?
- is there a batch number on the COA confirming what product is being tested and verifying chain of custody?
- a valid date
- product listed within the capsules
- specific Rotation - 89 - 93%
- Assay - 97 - 100%
Not all COA’s look the same, several suppliers do there own testing in house or simply use the China’s Supplier COA as their own and reprint the information. This is not want you want. Nor is a company that does not supply a COA.
Ideally you will see a CoA from the manufacturer and a CoA from an independent Lab verifying the accuracy of the manufacturers CoA.
Both Manufacturers CoA’s and Independent Lab CoA’s are available upon request from MultipleSupplements.com