Vanguard Laboratory in Olympia, Washington, is a real ISO/IEC 17025 lab, but its A2LA scope (certificate 6377.01, dated 22 December 2025) lists no peptide purity, identity or quantity test. Its free portal, verifiedbyvanguard.com, lets anyone open a client's reports without a login. Read the PDF from the portal, not the vendor's copy: on 10 October 2026, 42 certificates on Core Peptides' product pages left out the measured quantity that Vanguard's copy of the same report prints, including an IGF-1 LR3 vial at 0.42 mg of a 1 mg label.
Vanguard Laboratory is a real, accredited lab whose accreditation does not cover peptides. Its reports are easy to check, because the lab publishes them on an open portal. The catch is that the PDF a shop posts and the PDF the lab holds can differ. For Core Peptides, the shop's copies of 42 reports leave out the measured quantity the lab's copies print.
This page shows how to read a Vanguard certificate and which copy to trust. The Core Peptides audit has the shop-specific findings, and our CSV lists all 156 of its records.
What is Vanguard Laboratory?
Vanguard Laboratory is the trading name of Olympic Analytical, LLC, at 2635 Parkmont Lane, Olympia, Washington. It tests food, water and environmental samples, and it sells peptide testing to research-peptide shops. Its public portal, verifiedbyvanguard.com, listed 288 client brands on 10 October 2026. Our Hello Stacks audit records the portal's domain registration on 27 January 2026.
Vanguard's peptide price list sells a $250 "Silver" test (purity, quantity and identity on one vial) and add-ons for endotoxin, sterility, heavy metals, fentanyl screening and vial seal integrity. A "purity only" test for raw powders costs $200.
Is Vanguard Laboratory accredited for peptide testing?
No. Vanguard holds A2LA certificate 6377.01, ISO/IEC 17025:2017, valid to 30 September 2027. We read the three-page scope of accreditation, dated 22 December 2025. It lists:
- food and environmental microbiology (aerobic bacteria, E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, yeast and mold) and gluten, by AOAC methods;
- parabens, phenoxyethanol and organic-acid preservatives;
- trace elements by ICP-MS;
- residual solvents.
It lists no HPLC peptide purity, peptide identity or peptide quantity test. Every Vanguard peptide certificate we read says "Please consult A2LA Certificate #6377.01.01 for a list of accredited tests." That list does not include the tests on the certificate.
Other sites reported this first: Disclosed Labs, The Longevity Archive, which read the scope on 14 September 2026, and Peptide Decode on 3 October 2026. A 21 September Substack piece quotes Vanguard saying it is working to add peptides to its scope through pharmaceutical proficiency tests. Until A2LA issues a new scope, "A2LA-accredited lab" is true of Vanguard and not of its peptide results. Our testing-labs comparison sets Vanguard beside the other labs vendors use.
What does a Vanguard peptide COA test?
On the 156 Core Peptides reports we read, the analyses split three ways, plus two image-only files:
| Lines on the certificate | Reports |
|---|---|
| Purity only | 88 |
| Purity and quantity | 21 |
| Purity, quantity and identity | 45 |
| Image-only PDF (purity and quantity) | 2 |
Every report with an identity line also carries a quantity line. In all, 68 reports print a measured quantity and 45 an identity result.
Every method line reads HPLC-UV/VIS. The identity line reads "Pass - Matches Ref. Standard", which means the sample's main peak eluted at the same time as a reference standard.
A retention-time match is weaker than a mass-spectrometry identity check, which measures the molecule's mass. Kovera Labs and Janoshik print an LC-MS or MS line; our Kovera guide shows what that looks like.
Purity is printed with an uncertainty, "99.03% + 0.18%", and high results as a floor, ">99.80%". None of the 156 reports carried endotoxin, sterility or heavy-metal results. Hello Stacks' Vanguard reports did carry endotoxin results, so the panel depends on what the client buys.
Why can one Vanguard report exist in two versions?
We compared the 88 certificate PDFs on Core Peptides' product pages with Vanguard's copies on 10 October 2026. 62 of the shop's PDFs carry a laboratory ID that matches a public Vanguard record.
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| Shop PDFs with a public lab match | 62 |
| Of those, lab copy prints a measured quantity | 42 |
| Shop copies of those 42 that print the quantity | 0 |
| Pairs with identical PDF creation timestamps | 42 of 42 |
The clearest case is IGF-1 LR3 1 mg, report V260706-2 075, lot C74169. Vanguard's copy prints identity pass, purity >99.50% and quantity 0.42 mg. The shop's copy prints the same identity and purity lines and no quantity line. The product page describes the batch as tested at ">99% purity by HPLC".
The matching timestamps suggest both versions came out of the same source file at the same moment, rather than one being edited later. We cannot tell from outside whether the lab issues a "no quantity" version on request or someone else produced it, and we have not asked. For a buyer the effect is the same: the copy on the shop page shows less than the lab found.
Two other mismatches turned up:
- One report number on two products. The shop's Fragment 176-191 certificate gives lab ID V260706-2 007, lot C74128 and purity 99.08%. Vanguard's V260706-2 007 is AOD-9604, lot C74106, purity 99.08%.
- Portal summary versus PDF. For two December 2025 semaglutide reports, the portal's quantity fields say "3 mg" and "5 mg". The image-only certificates print 2.74 mg and 4.61 mg.
The portal is not complete either. 26 of the shop's PDFs carry Vanguard lab IDs that do not appear in the brand's public list, including reports dated 21 August 2026.
Forged certificates are a separate problem, covered in our Paradigm Peptides piece. Nothing here suggests forgery. It shows that a genuine lab report can reach you in a shorter form than the lab's own copy.
How do I check a Vanguard COA?
- Find the lab's copy. Open the verify link on the vendor's PDF, or search the brand on verifiedbyvanguard.com. The portal's public list for a brand also works as a direct address, for example Core Peptides.
- Download the PDF from the lab. Use the PDF button on the lab's verify page, not the file on the shop's site.
- Match three fields to your vial and the vendor's copy. Laboratory ID, lot number and date reported. The portal's batch field is empty on all 156 Core Peptides records, so the lot code on the PDF is the only link to your vial.
- Read every analysis line on the lab's copy. If the lab copy has a quantity line and the vendor's does not, the lab copy wins.
- Note what is not there. No identity line means nobody checked which molecule is in the vial. An HPLC identity line is a retention-time match. No endotoxin line means no endotoxin test.
- Remember the disclaimer. Every Vanguard certificate says the lab "did not observe or participate in the sample selection process" and "cannot confirm the authenticity of the sample or its representativeness" of the lot.
If you want an identity check by mass, our COA verifier handles Janoshik reports, and the Kovera verification steps cover Kovera.
What this does not show
It does not show that Vanguard's numbers are wrong. Accreditation scope and accuracy are different questions, and we have no independent re-test. It does not show which party produced the shorter PDFs. And it covers one client: we compared shop copies for Core Peptides only, so other Vanguard clients may post full copies.
What we read, and what we did not
On 10 October 2026 we read all 156 Vanguard records for the brand "Core Peptides" (portal list, verification pages and PDFs), the 88 certificate PDFs on Core Peptides' product pages, PDF metadata for the 42 matched pairs, Vanguard's A2LA scope, its peptide price list, the portal's brand list, and the rater and Substack pages cited here.
We did not contact Vanguard, A2LA or Core Peptides, send a sample, or re-test any vial. We did not compare shop copies for other Vanguard clients. Two December 2025 certificates are image-only, and we read their values from the rendered page.
Sources
- A2LA: scope of accreditation, certificate 6377.01, dated 22 December 2025
- Vanguard Laboratory: public portal, brand "Core Peptides", peptide testing price list, about page
- Core Peptides: IGF-1 LR3 1 mg certificate as posted, Fragment 176-191 certificate as posted
- Earlier reporting on the scope: Disclosed Labs, The Longevity Archive, Peptide Decode (3 October 2026), Substack (21 September 2026)
- vialaudit: all 156 Core Peptides records with shop-copy comparison (CSV), Core Peptides audit, Hello Stacks audit
Frequently asked
Is Vanguard Laboratory legit?
Yes, as a lab. Olympic Analytical, LLC trades as Vanguard Laboratory in Olympia, Washington, and holds A2LA certificate 6377.01 to 30 September 2027. Its reports resolve on its own portal. The limits are scope and method: the accreditation covers no peptide test, and the identity line on the reports we read is an HPLC match, not mass spectrometry.
Is Vanguard Laboratory accredited for peptide testing?
No. The A2LA scope dated 22 December 2025 covers food and environmental microbiology, gluten, preservatives, trace metals by ICP-MS and residual solvents. It lists no HPLC peptide purity, identity or quantity method. Vanguard has told a Substack writer it is working to add peptides; until A2LA reissues the scope, those results sit outside it.
How do I verify a Vanguard COA?
Search the brand on verifiedbyvanguard.com or open the report's verify link, then download the PDF from the lab's site. Match the laboratory ID and the lot number printed on the PDF to your vial and the vendor's copy. Read the quantity line on the lab's copy, because vendor copies can omit it. The portal's batch field is often empty.
What does "Pass - Matches Ref. Standard" mean on a Vanguard COA?
It means the sample's main HPLC peak eluted at the same time as a reference standard. That is a retention-time match. It does not confirm molecular mass the way LC-MS does, so two similar peptides can pass it. On the 156 Core Peptides reports we read, 45 carried this line and none carried a mass-spectrometry result.
Why does the Vanguard portal show a different quantity from the PDF?
The portal's summary fields are entered separately from the PDF. For two December 2025 Core Peptides semaglutide reports, the portal shows 3 mg and 5 mg, while the image-only certificates print 2.74 mg and 4.61 mg. Treat the signed PDF as the record and the summary tile as an index.