the paperwork we publish.
a plain-english walkthrough of a certificate of analysis — what each row means, what to look for, and what a "passed" result doesn't tell you.
every batch we run is sent to an independent uk lab, and the results are published on our lab results page — product by product, batch by batch, before the bottles leave our warehouse. what comes back is called a certificate of analysis, or coa: a dense set of tables and numbers that, if you've never read one, feels roughly as welcoming as a tax return.
this letter is a guided tour. by the end of it you will be able to look at any coa — ours or a competitor's — and know what you're reading and, more usefully, what you should be looking for.
page one: the cannabinoid profile.
the most recognisable table. left column: a list of cannabinoids (cbd, cbg, cbn, cbc, d8, d9-thc, cbda, cbga, etc.). right columns: concentration, typically expressed in both mg/g (or mg/ml for liquids) and % w/w. what to check:
- the total cbd matches the label. a 1200mg/15ml oil should show ~80mg/ml. within 10% either way is normal; more than that is a flag.
- the minor cannabinoids are present. a full-spectrum product should show at least cbg, cbn and traces of cbc. if it's all cbd and nothing else, it's been labelled optimistically.
- d9-thc is under 0.2%. below the uk legal limit for cbd food supplements. ours typically reads "
page two: heavy metals.
lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury. four numbers, each with a little red "limit" value next to it. the limits come from the fsa's guidance on food supplements. ours come back below the detection limit more often than not. when they don't, the value will be shown with a precise number alongside the limit — you want the number to be at least ten times smaller than the limit to be comfortable. hemp is a hyperaccumulator — it pulls metals out of soil — so this page matters.
page three: pesticides & solvents.
a long list. 50 to 80 compounds. most reading "nd" (not detected). we buy eu-certified organic hemp so we don't expect pesticide hits, but the test is still worth running — cross-contamination happens in shared drying barns. the solvent panel matters more for extracts: if a supplier used ethanol or hexane in the process, traces can linger. our co2 extraction method is solvent-free, which is why this page is boring reading for us. boring is the goal.
page four: microbial.
yeast, mould, coliforms, e. coli, salmonella. again, all "nd" on a good coa. this page is more important for topicals (our balm) and for anything stored at room temperature (our oils) than for extracts or vapes, where the manufacturing process sterilises at a higher threshold.
what "passed" doesn't tell you.
a coa is a snapshot. it tests a sample of a batch — often 3 samples averaged. what it doesn't confirm:
- that your specific bottle is identical to the sample. variance within a batch is small, but non-zero.
- how the product was stored after it left the lab. oil degrades if it's kept warm or lit.
- the sensory character — taste, viscosity, smell. a coa cannot tell you if a full-spectrum oil tastes clean or of compost.
- how the plant was grown. a coa measures what came out, not what went in.
we publish ours for the same reason a chef publishes a supplier list: it's where most of the quality actually lives. but a passed coa is the beginning of trust, not the end.
tell us when you've read one.
if you've read this far, do the following test: open our lab results page, pick the product closest to something you own, and read its most recent batch entry with this letter beside you. we are genuinely curious to hear what you notice. email us at bhpcbd@gmail.com — subject line "coa" — and we'll write back.
— the bhp team
brereton heath · 22 september 2025