How to find 3rd party tested supplements?

No lot, no test: why a third-party test is a document about a batch and the lot number is its key, and the first of the three places the lot unlocks, the brand's own lot lookup or certificate page

How to find third-party tested supplements is a question that search engines answer with lists of brands, and the lists are opinion, because third-party tested is not a property of a brand; it is a document about a batch. A laboratory tests a sample from a specific production lot and issues a certificate of analysis for that lot, and the certificate is meaningless without the lot it describes, which is why every real one carries a lot number and every real product that has one prints the lot on the tub. That gives a buyer a rule that sorts the shelf before any search begins: a product with no lot number on its label cannot have been third-party tested by batch, because there is no batch to attach a test to, and whatever its listing says about testing is a statement about the brand's intentions rather than a document about the tub. No lot, no test. A product with a lot number may or may not have been tested, and the lot is the key that opens the three places where the answer lives.

The first place is the brand's own site, and the thing to look for is a lot lookup or a certificate page. Brands that test by batch and want the credit for it post their certificates of analysis per lot, behind a search box into which the buyer types the lot from the tub, or on a page listing recent lots with a certificate for each, or by a code on the label that leads to the lot's page; and brands that test by batch but have not built the page send the certificate on request by email, within a few days, when asked for the lot on the tub. What arrives is read for five things: the lot matching the tub; the laboratory's name and accreditation number; the analytes, which should be the ones that matter for that category, the four metals for a mineral or a plant protein, the microbial panel and the assay for a protein, the prohibited list for a sports product; the method and its limits of quantification; and the date. A brand that answers the request with a general statement about its testing, a facility certificate, or a certificate for a different product or an old lot has not answered, and the buyer has learnt what the brand's testing claim was worth. The search from the tub in hand therefore starts here, and for most products it ends here too, because a brand that will not show a per-lot certificate has none to show.

The first place searched, with the second and third, the programmes' databases and the accreditation register, the search run in reverse to build a shortlist, the phrases that mean no lot will ever be found, the worked example and the verdict in the next section.

The second and third places, the certification programmes' databases and the national accreditation register; the search run in reverse to build a shortlist; the phrases that mean no lot will ever be found; the worked example; and the verdict

The second place is the certification programmes' databases, and the lot unlocks them in the same way. A sport programme that tests every batch lists the lots it tested by product, so that the lot on the tub is typed in and either found or not; a programme that certifies by market sampling lists the product and not the lot, and the buyer checks that the exact product and flavour are listed and current. A pharmacopoeial verification programme lists the products it has verified for identity, strength and purity. Each database is a public record of a third party's test, and a product found in one has been third-party tested for what that programme tests, which is narrow and specific and the previous pages in this section set out. The third place is the national accreditation register, and the lot reaches it through the certificate: a certificate of analysis names the laboratory that issued it and, if the laboratory is accredited, its accreditation number, and the register lists the laboratory with its schedule of accredited methods by analyte and matrix. A buyer who finds the laboratory on the register and the method on its schedule has confirmed that the third party is a real one with something to lose; a certificate from a laboratory not on the register, or for a method not on its schedule, is a document from an unaccredited source, and the test it reports was not a third-party test in the sense the phrase is meant to carry.

The search can be run in reverse to build a shortlist rather than to check a tub in hand, and the three places serve the same way. A buyer who wants a third-party tested product in a category starts from the programmes' databases, which list certified products by category and are the only authoritative lists there are, and from the brands whose sites carry a lot lookup or certificate page, which a search for the brand name and certificate of analysis finds quickly; a shortlist built from those two sources is a list of products with a document, and the lot on the tub is confirmed when it arrives. The phrases on a listing that mean no lot will ever be found are the ones that describe testing without a batch, a laboratory or a certificate: lab tested, quality tested, tested for purity, rigorously tested, third-party tested with nothing after it; each is a claim without a document, and a buyer who asks for the lot's certificate and receives the phrase again has the answer. A phrase with a lot, a named accredited laboratory and a certificate behind it is the thing the search was for.

The worked example has its lot on the label and its certificate behind it, and is placed as that: {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, prints its lot number on the label beside the date, and each lot is tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry at a UK laboratory on the national accreditation register, with the certificate for the lot sent on request and read for the five things above; it is not listed in any sport programme's database, which it says, so a tested athlete who wants a magnesium finds one there instead. UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day. The full label breakdown is here.

The verdict: find third-party tested supplements by working backwards from the lot number. A product with no lot on the tub cannot have been tested by batch and is set aside. A product with one is checked in the three places the lot unlocks: the brand's lot lookup or certificate page, where a per-lot certificate is posted or sent and read for the lot, the laboratory, the analytes, the method and the date; the certification programmes' databases, where a tested lot or a certified product is listed; and the national accreditation register, where the laboratory on the certificate and the method on its schedule are confirmed. Run in reverse, the same three places build the only shortlist worth having, and a testing phrase with no lot behind it is a slogan.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

How do I know if a supplement is actually third-party tested?

By working backwards from the lot number on the tub, because a third-party test is a certificate about a specific batch and the lot is its key: a product with no lot number cannot have been tested by batch at all; a product with one is checked in the brand's lot lookup or certificate page, or by emailing the lot and asking for its certificate, which is read for the lot matching the tub, the laboratory and its accreditation number, the analytes that matter for the category, the method and its limits of quantification, and the date; then in the certification programmes' databases, and then on the national accreditation register, where the laboratory and the method are confirmed.

Is there a list of third-party tested supplements?

Only the authoritative ones are the certification programmes' own databases, which list the products and, for the per-batch programmes, the lots they have tested, by category, and which are public; every other list is a writer's opinion about brands, and third-party tested is not a property of a brand but a document about a batch; a shortlist worth having is built in reverse from the three places a lot unlocks, the programmes' databases, the brands whose sites carry a lot lookup or certificate page, and the national accreditation register for the laboratories those certificates name, with the lot on the tub confirmed when it arrives.

What does a certificate of analysis for a supplement look like?

A document from a laboratory about one lot, carrying five things a buyer reads in order: the lot number, which must match the tub; the laboratory's name and, if accredited, its accreditation number, which is confirmed on the national register with the method on the laboratory's schedule; the analytes, which should be the ones that matter for the category, the four metals for a mineral or a plant protein, the microbial panel and the assay for a protein, the prohibited list for a sports product; the method and its limits of quantification, which say how low the laboratory can measure; and the date; a certificate missing any of the five, or for a different product or an old lot, is not the document asked for.

What does lab tested mean on a supplement label?

On its own, nothing a buyer can use: lab tested, quality tested, tested for purity and third-party tested with nothing after them are claims without a document, since they name no batch, no laboratory and no certificate, and a product whose label carries one of those phrases and no lot number cannot have been tested by batch whatever the phrase intends; the phrase becomes a fact when a lot number on the tub leads to a certificate of analysis for that lot from a laboratory on the national accreditation register, and a buyer who asks for the certificate and receives the phrase again has learnt what the phrase was worth.

How do I check this site's magnesium is third-party tested?

By the same three places, from the lot on the tub: the lot number is printed on the label beside the date, each lot is tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry at a UK laboratory on the national accreditation register, and the certificate for the lot is sent on request and read for the lot, the laboratory and its number, the four metals, the method and limits of quantification, and the date; it is not listed in any sport programme's database, which it says, so a tested athlete who wants a magnesium finds one there instead; the product is 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 for £19.99 at 22p a day.

Sources

1. The independent supplement testing services: subscription laboratories that purchase products at retail and test them for label accuracy, contaminants and disintegration, publishing pass and fail results by product, the one kind of review that reports what was in the tub rather than how it felt. PubMed record
2. ISO/IEC 17025, the standard for testing and calibration laboratories: accreditation to it by a national body attests to a laboratory's technical competence and the validity of its results for the methods in scope, and is what makes a certificate of analysis a document someone has audited. https://www.ukas.com/accreditation/standards/laboratory-accreditation/
3. The sports supplement certification programmes: Informed Sport, Informed Choice, BSCG and NSF Certified for Sport test products or batches for banned substances, the assurance competing athletes rely on. https://sport.wetestyoutrust.com/
4. The batch release and certificate of analysis framework: a product has a written specification for identity, assay, contaminants and physical properties, each batch is tested against it before release, and the certificate of analysis for a batch reports the results against the specification, so that batch-to-batch consistency is read by comparing certificates across lot numbers. PubMed record

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