When buying supplements, understanding the product’s quality and purity is crucial. One of the best ways to verify this is by reviewing the product's Certificate of Analysis (COA). A COA is a document provided by an independent, third-party lab that tests the supplement for its contents and certifies its quality. Here’s a guide on how to read a COA, and the specifics that KONO tests for. 

Here’s the key components that we test for on all of our supplements:

• A complete microbial profile including E.coli, yeasts, molds, coliforms, salmonella, and staph bacteria.

• Heavy metal profile including lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury. 

• Then, in true KONO fashion we love to take things the extra mile. We test our products for glyphosate residue because it’s the number one herbicide sprayed over 3 billion pounds annually all over our planet. This is the importance of utilizing organic ingredients and our strategic farm partnerships that utilize regenerative agriculture without the use of chemicals. 

Key Sections of a COA

• The Analysis column shows the individual analyses for a product sample. An underlined analysis indicates a testing package.

• The method column has the internal SOP number. SOP names can be proprietary to ARL (3rd party lab) or USP/AOAC standards.

• Microbiological testing uses two key metrics: Minimum Detection Limit (MDL) and Limit of Quantification (LOQ). The MDL signifies the lowest level of microbial growth that can be reliably detected. If a sample result is reported as “None Detected,” it implies that any potential growth falls below this limit. Analytical chemistry testing, on the other hand, focuses on the LOQ. This represents the minimum level of the target analyte (the substance being measured) that can be accurately quantified. When a result is reported as “less than LOQ,” it indicates that any detected amount of the analyte is too small to determine a precise amount. 

• Specifications can be provided to a 3rd party lab, however, KONO does not provide any specs to remove any possible biases and that is why it is listed as "Record Only" to record exactly what they find, rather than within a certain specification. 

• Unit of Measurement (UOM) is the unit being used to report the sample. 

Making Sense of the Results

Glyphosate Results:
The unit of measure is percent (%) and the Limit of Quantitation (LOQ) is 0.4%. So by showing less than .4%, this means there was none detected within our detection limit which tests for the smallest quantities possible! 

Cadmium Results:
Pure dark chocolate and real cacao can be known to be a bit higher in cadmium, but let's talk about if that’s an issue and why. Cacao grows in several different climates around the world and the fruit can be very absorbent of metals that naturally occur in the soil. The issue that we’ve found is that cadmium levels in the soil are skyrocketing and not due to natural causes but due to pollution, excess chemicals, and even volcanic eruption. Cadmium does occur naturally in earth's crust from phosphate rocks and other minerals but in very small amounts. Naturally occurring cadmium levels in soil can typically range from 0.1 to 0.5 ppm. Anything beyond that ppm would be considered contaminated soil and can pose some serious health risks. 

Here’s some European Union standards (known to be most strict in the world when it comes to toxins) on safe levels of cadmium: 

The EU has set maximum allowable cadmium levels for chocolate products based on their cocoa content:

• 0.10 ppm (mg/kg): Chocolate with <30% cocoa solids.

• 0.30 ppm (mg/kg): Chocolate with 30-50% cocoa solids.

• 0.80 ppm (mg/kg): Chocolate with >50% cocoa solids (dark chocolate).

• 0.60 ppm (mg/kg): Cocoa powder sold for Direct consumption 

The KONO raw chocolate protein shows levels around .044 ppm… much much less than what you’d expect in naturally occurring soil or dark chocolate products because we focus on organic and regenerative farms that take amazing care of the soil! 

Arsenic Results:
The EU uses a precautionary approach for arsenic in supplements and is much more strict than their recommendations for food even. They are recommending that levels remain below 3 ppm (3 mg/kg) of total arsenic. All of the KONO products range from .01-.05ppm, far below the EU standard of less than 3ppm. 

Lead Results:
Lead is also naturally present in Earth's rocks, and therefore will be present in small quantities in produce grown from the earth. For KONO products, we use a lot of earth grown ingredients so we make sure to be mindful of our lead testing results especially in tea leaves and our sea salt which comes naturally from an ancient sea bed! 

If someone consumes 6g of sea salt per day, this is around 1mcg of lead or roughly .2ppm. The FDA recommends to keep lead under 75mcg per day for adults, 25mcg per day for pregnant women, and 6mcg per day for children (Not saying the FDA is the most trusted source, but look at the drastic difference here). KONO’s hydrate product is roughly .06ppm for lead content and roughly .04ppm from our functional energy product that uses an organic tea leaf, far within a natural range from earth's surface and far less than many of the vegetables we consume on a daily basis. 

KONO is committed to putting YOUR Health First. Which means transparency of our ingredients and our 3rd party testing results while leading the charge in education in the industry. Please reach out to us if you have any questions!