What’s a COA?
What goes on behind the marketing that makes a product safe, effective, and reliable? What regulation is in place that assures confidence in nutraceuticals, food, and beverages?
Any product that is consumed or that may have a safety risk is under federal regulation. Companies cannot regulate themselves and because the goal of all business is to make a profit, it is beneficial to manufacturers and consumers if a governmental body can set unbiased regulation for an entire industry. Appropriate regulation levels the playing field and raises the bar on quality, safety, and efficacy for a diverse population.
Manufacturers rely on two main documents as a guarantee of, quality, efficacy and safety for consumable and body care products:
COA
A COA (CoA, Certificate of Analysis) is one such legal document that certifies the quality of a product or ingredient. It is a certification made by the manufacturer selling an ingredient.
SDS
SDS was known originally as MSDS, a Material Safety Data Sheet now shortened to Safety Data Sheet. This document affirms how safe an ingredient is, and how to keep it safe (containment, recommended temperature range, etc.) who can handle it and under what circumstances, how to treat exposure, spillage, skin contact, and or overuse.
Following a Raw Ingredient from Manufacture into a Food or Supplement
Product developers contract with an ingredient supplier to manufacture a product according to the developer’s recipe. An herbal formulation is a good example where many herbs are brought together for a specific purpose, or a vitamin product where one or two ingredients are combined such as vitamin D3 and vitamin K2.
The company manufacturing a multi-herbal formula must qualify every ingredient and prove, by laboratory testing, that the ingredient is pure and not contaminated, and that it has the quality and potency and that it meets the request of the product developer
This certification is done by sharing the results of laboratory testing with the product developer or contract manufacturer. In the case of Mineral Logic’s MLG-50 Fulvic Mineral extracts, it is necessary for every batch of extract to undergo five different laboratory tests that guarantee the fulvic acid percentage, the trace mineral content, any heavy metal content, the organic acids, and no microbial content.
Manufacturers like Mineral Logic, who produce products for human consumption, must have their product meet all safety levels before it can be released to a contract manufacturer.
Once a new batch of fulvic extract has received all the lab results, Mineral Logic’s Quality Control Unit creates a COA. If any lab report comes back with values that are not within our specification for safety and content, the product is quarantined for further analysis or destroyed.
These testing processes and certification add to the cost of a product but also ensure its safety. This is also why it is important that a manufacturer has cGMP accreditation. Our annual UL cGMP audit goes through all of Mineral Logic’s processes, every work station, every sanitizing process, the quarantine area, the WIP (Work in Progress) area, every manufacturing step, heating, cooling, filtration, all logs, our pest control policy, our on-going food safety education and training, our equipment management and calibration, the sanitation of the common areas, kitchen, bathroom, our time and process logs, cleanliness of the offices, and the landscaping around the outside perimeter of the facility.
Pharmaceutical products, research products, chemicals, dietary supplements, beverages, and food all rely on a Certificate of Analysis to qualify the ingredients.
Who Creates the COA?
At Mineral Logic, we use FDA-certified third-party laboratories to conduct the testing of our products. The data of these lab reports are transferred onto one document by our Quality Assurance unit on Mineral Logic letterhead as our COA for that product batch.
We designed our CoAs to be minimalistic and easy to comprehend, whether you’re a manufacturer, government official, or consumer. Our certificates of analysis have three main components:
Sample Information
Test Information
Final Approval
These are just the basics, and we are in the process of completing our extensive COA white paper with expanded information and sample COAs on how to read a COA. As soon as this is ready, we will publish on our website.
Whether your products fall under the categories of nutraceutical, beverage, functional food, or body-care, fulvic acid may very well be the supplement to set you apart, to truly assist you with helping your customers reach optimal health.
Contact us today for more information.
Disclaimer: Our fulvic products are for supporting overall health by way of supplying minerals, trace minerals, antioxidants, electrolytes, and other micro-nutrients. Our products are NOT meant for the treatment mitigation or prevention of any disease or health ailments.
