A Certificate of Analysis looks like homework. It is actually the single most useful document in this entire product category, and you can learn to read one in five minutes. Class is in session.

What a COA is

A COA is an independent lab's report card for one specific batch of product. Not the brand. Not the product line. One batch. It tells you what is in there, what is not, and who checked. Any brand making claims about THC content, purity, or safety should be able to hand you one, and if they cannot, that silence is your answer.

The five things to check

1. The cannabinoid panel

This is the headline section. Find the THC and CBD rows. ND means non-detect: the lab looked and found nothing above its detection threshold. On a MONDAYS COA, every cannabinoid row reads ND, because there is nothing in the recipe to detect. On a hemp THC product, you would instead see numbers here, and those numbers are about to matter a lot (see point three).

2. Total THC, not just delta-9

Modern standards count total THC, which folds THCA in using the formula delta-9 plus 0.877 times THCA. A product bragging about low delta-9 while carrying heavy THCA is playing a math game the law has now caught up with.

3. The per-container math

The federal hemp law effective November 12, 2026 caps finished hemp products at 0.4 mg total THC per container, the whole package, not per serving. So do the multiplication: per-serving THC times servings per container. A 30-count jar of 2 mg gummies is 60 mg per container, or 150 times the new cap. This one calculation explains most of what is about to happen to the hemp aisle. Full breakdown in our 2026 hemp law explainer.

4. The safety panels

Pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents, microbials, mycotoxins. You are looking for PASS across the board. These panels are why lab testing matters even for products with no cannabinoids at all: clean is a claim that needs receipts too.

5. Batch number and the lab itself

Match the batch or lot number on the COA to the one printed on your product. A COA for a different batch tells you nothing about yours. And check the lab: independent, accredited, ideally DEA-registered. An anonymous PDF with no lab letterhead is a prop, not proof.

Try it on ours

The fastest way to learn is on a real document. Every MONDAYS flavor has its COA published on our Lab Results page, tested by Delta 9 Analytical, a DEA-registered lab. Open one, find the five things above, and you are now more informed than most of the market. Our lab testing page goes deeper on how our process works.