Same material, different gradients, different answers
Duplicate submissions under different names test within-laboratory repeatability, which is a different quantity from between-laboratory reproducibility.
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An independent vendor verification service.
What a split-sample exercise can establish, and what it cannot
Duplicate submissions under different names test within-laboratory repeatability, which is a different quantity from between-laboratory reproducibility.
What a laboratory knows about the material it receives
Chain of custody, in a regulated setting, begins at sampling. Here it begins when the package arrives.
From vial to bench: what is recorded and what is assumed
The condition on arrival is recorded by some services and not others, and it is one of the more informative lines in a report.
How a claim degrades between the bench and the listing
Lot-level verification with a public report is a real and achievable thing. It exists in this market, on a minority of listings.
Six words a verification badge would need to mean anything
A badge asserts that something was tested. It does not assert what, when, on whose sample, by what method, or whether the lot on sale is the lot that was tested.
How a claim degrades between the bench and the listing
Every step between the laboratory report and the product page removes information, and the badge is the last step.
The badge economy, and what it is actually certifying
Every step between the laboratory report and the product page removes information, and the badge is the last step.
An interlaboratory comparison nobody had run
Two years ago we ran an anonymised version of this comparison and promised a named one. This is it, with every method printed in full.
The submitted sample: the weakest link in the whole system
Every third-party report in this market describes a sample somebody chose to send. That choice is outside the laboratory’s control and outside its records.
From vial to bench: what is recorded and what is assumed
A result on one vial generalises to a batch only if the vial was drawn in a way that makes it representative — and nobody records how it was drawn.
Same material, different gradients, different answers
Two years ago we ran an anonymised version of this comparison and promised a named one. This is it, with every method printed in full.
Chain of custody, and where it begins
Chain of custody, in a regulated setting, begins at sampling. Here it begins when the package arrives.
An interlaboratory comparison nobody had run
The Journal submitted split samples from single lots to three assay services, under names unconnected to this publication, and published each method alongside each result.
The sample is not the batch
A result on one vial generalises to a batch only if the vial was drawn in a way that makes it representative — and nobody records how it was drawn.
Why a result on one vial says less than the trade needs it to
The condition on arrival is recorded by some services and not others, and it is one of the more informative lines in a report.
The badge economy, and what it is actually certifying
A badge asserts that something was tested. It does not assert what, when, on whose sample, by what method, or whether the lot on sale is the lot that was tested.
Reproducibility, measured rather than assumed
Two years ago we ran an anonymised version of this comparison and promised a named one. This is it, with every method printed in full.
The badge economy, and what it is actually certifying
Every step between the laboratory report and the product page removes information, and the badge is the last step.
What a laboratory knows about the material it receives
Every third-party report in this market describes a sample somebody chose to send. That choice is outside the laboratory’s control and outside its records.