Certificate of Analysis
The manufacturer's signed test record showing a specific batch met its published specification.
What is a certificate of analysis?
A Certificate of Analysis is a document issued by the manufacturer of a material that records the results of the quality tests run on one specific batch, alongside the specification each result had to meet. It names the material, the batch or lot number, the test methods used, the measured result for each parameter, the acceptance range, and the date of manufacture or release. It is signed or authorised by the manufacturer's quality function. A Certificate of Analysis is evidence about one batch and nothing else: it does not describe the product line in general, and it does not transfer to a different batch of the same material. This is why a Certificate of Analysis is only meaningful when the batch number printed on it matches the batch number on the drum, sack or pallet in front of you. Without that match, the document proves nothing about the goods being sold.
How Surply uses it
Sellers attach the original manufacturer's Certificate of Analysis to the listing, and the batch number on the listing is the one printed on the document. Publication is fail-closed: where extraction of a document is incomplete, stale or unreviewed, Surply withholds it rather than showing a substitute.
Also known as: CoA, COA, certificate of analysis meaning.