Scorecard / The seven checks

A check belongs in this scheme only if a reader can settle it alone, inside a browser, on the brand's own pages, without taking this site's word for anything. All seven below meet that bar. What orders them is effort: the first costs one glance, the last needs a package already in hand. Effort is not importance. A check placed late is not the weightier one, it only asks more of a reader before it will answer. Each entry says the same three things in the same order: what to check, what a filled cell means, and what a filled cell still does not prove.

Check 01. Category stated

The check: Open the brand's front page and its about page, and find the sentence where it says what it sells and who buys it.
A filled cell means: The brand states its category in its own words, rather than leaving a reader to infer it from a product photograph.
It does not prove: Nothing about quality, and nothing about the accuracy of anything else on the site. It settles which shop a reader is standing in, and stops there.
Effort: One glance.

Check 02. Standing wording for the laboratory

The check: Find the sentence that names the testing laboratory, and read what it claims about that laboratory's standing, word for word.
A filled cell means: The wording is specific and carries its own qualifiers, rather than gesturing at a standard number and leaving the rest unsaid. As the single filled example here, the brand paying for this page, Peptara Labs, describes Titreon Analytical as a third-party laboratory whose quality system is aligned to ISO/IEC 17025:2017, not itself accredited, wording published on its trust page.
It does not prove: That the laboratory is any good, that a standards body has said anything, or that the measurements are correct. It proves a brand will write a precise sentence where a vague one would sell as well.
Effort: One glance, and a slow read of one sentence.

Check 03. Entity and filing number

The check: Find the legal entity name, the jurisdiction it is registered in, and a filing identifier, then carry that identifier to the registry that issued it.
A filled cell means: The entity name, the jurisdiction and a filing identifier are all published where a reader can look them up without contacting anyone. This check earns its seat for a narrow reason: on 2026-09-01 this site's baseline recorded brand names that read as near-identical, and domains built to resemble each other, cited side by side. A filing number a reader can look up cuts through a resemblance the eye cannot settle.
It does not prove: That the company is competent, solvent, or the maker of anything. It fixes one specific named entity behind a brand name, and no more.
Effort: A read, then one lookup off the brand's own site.

Check 04. The form of the certificate file

The check: Click one certificate link, and see whether a searchable document arrives or a photograph of a page.
A filled cell means: The link returns a document with pages a reader can scroll and text a reader can search, not a picture of a page.
It does not prove: That anything inside the file is true, or that the file matches what would arrive in a box. It proves the record was published in a form that can be read, quoted and checked line by line. This one is written out at length at check 04 at full length.
Effort: One click and one file opened.

Check 05. A second laboratory on the same batch

The check: Look at whether any published report on a named batch carries a laboratory name different from the one that ran the main panel.
A filled cell means: Two laboratory names appear against at least one identified batch.
It does not prove: Agreement between the two, coverage of the whole panel, or anything at all about batches that carry no second report. It proves one measurement survived being repeated on a different bench. This one is written out at length at check 05 at full length.
Effort: Two documents compared.

Check 06. A report key the laboratory can confirm

The check: Look for a verification key printed on a report, and a published route for putting that key in front of the laboratory that issued it.
A filled cell means: The key and the route are both published. This cell reads STATED ONLY when both are published but this site did not carry the confirmation through to the issuing laboratory itself.
It does not prove: That the confirmation succeeds. It proves a brand placed a check outside its own control and pointed a reader toward it.
Effort: Leaves the brand's site entirely.

Check 07. A route from a container to a record

The check: Find the published answer to one question: how does a reader tie a container in hand to one specific published record?
A filled cell means: A route is published and stated plainly, including the case where it runs through the seller rather than through anything printed on the container.
It does not prove: That the tie is independent of the seller. Where nothing is printed on the container, the route is a message and the record comes from the same party being checked, and the cell note carries that limit rather than burying it.
Effort: Needs an order already in hand, which is why it sits last.

What could unseat a check, and where these seven were used

These seven are the whole scheme, and nothing outside them is marked. What could remove a check from it, with the one rule that settles the question, is set out at what would throw a check out of this scheme. The marks these checks actually produced, on the single row that carried any, sit at the marks these checks produced.