Key takeaway: A coffee lab report tells you what was tested, which lab tested it, how, and what it found. The most important symbol is "<": it means nothing was detected at or above the lab's reporting limit, not that the amount is zero. Check the sample, the date, each mycotoxin by name, and the limits.
"Lab tested" is printed on a lot of coffee bags these days. It sounds great. But a claim on a bag is a promise, and a lab report is the receipt.
The catch: lab reports aren't written for coffee drinkers. They're dense, full of codes, and they use symbols like "<0.500 ppb" that look like a typo if nobody explains them. So let's fix that. Below, we walk through a real report line by line: our own Eurofins report for Pure Health Coffee green beans from March 2024, which you can open on our lab results page and follow along with.
What is a coffee COA, anyway?
COA stands for certificate of analysis. It's the document a lab issues after testing a sample. Eurofins calls ours an "Analytical Report," but it does the same job.
For coffee, the tests people care most about are for mycotoxins, compounds some molds can produce on crops while they grow, dry or sit in storage. Coffee isn't immune. A global meta-analysis covering 3,182 samples found ochratoxin A (OTA) in about 53% of coffee and coffee-product samples tested (Khaneghah et al., Fungal Biol 2019). That's exactly why a report is worth reading, not just a label.
What's at the top of the report?
The header is the "who, when and which one" section. On our March 2024 report it shows:
- The lab: Eurofins Microbiology Laboratories (Mounds View, Minnesota), with its address and contact info. A real report names a real lab you can contact.
- The client: Edge Coffee Company. (We blacked out only our founder's home address.)
- Report number: AR-24-JF-015481-01. A unique ID ties the PDF to the lab's records.
- Received on / Reported on: 21 Mar 2024 and 30 Mar 2024. You want both dates. A report from years ago tells you about years-ago coffee.
Quick tip: if a brand shows only a cropped screenshot with no lab name, report number or dates, you can't tell which coffee, which lab or which year it's about.
What exactly was tested?
This is the line most people skip, and it might matter most.
- Sample description: "green coffee beans." That's unroasted coffee.
- Condition upon receipt: "acceptable, non-perishable." The sample arrived in good shape.
- Sample code: 813-2024-03210676, the lab's internal tracking number.
Why does "green" matter? Because roasting changes the numbers. In one review, most roasting studies reported OTA reductions of roughly 60% or more (van der Stegen et al., J Agric Food Chem 2001), but on an industrial line about 16% of the green-bean OTA was still in the roasted, ground coffee (Blanc et al., J Agric Food Chem 1998). Testing green beans shows what was there before roasting got a chance to hide anything. We explain more on our mold and mycotoxin page.
What do the test panel, reference and method lines mean?
Next comes a row that looks like alphabet soup: "FSMRB – Mycotoxins" with a reference to Anal. Bioanal. Chem. (2012) 402:2675–2686.
- Panel name: FSMRB is Eurofins' name for the multi-mycotoxin test that was run. One panel can measure many toxins at once.
- Reference: the published method the lab's test is based on. That citation is a peer-reviewed paper describing an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method that measured 11 regulated mycotoxins, using isotope-labeled internal standards to keep results accurate (Varga et al., Anal Bioanal Chem 2012).
- Completed / Sub: the date the testing finished, and a footnote number. Ours points to a subcontracting partner, Eurofins Food Chemistry Testing US in Madison, Wisconsin, which ran the analysis. Big lab networks route tests to specialist sites, and a good report says so.
You don't need to understand mass spectrometry to read a COA. You just want to see that a named, published method was used.
What does "<1.00 ppb" actually mean?
Here's the main event. The results table lists each parameter (the toxin) and a result. On our report, every result starts with "<":
| Parameter | Result |
|---|---|
| Ochratoxin A | <1.00 ppb |
| Aflatoxin B1, B2, G1, G2 (each) | <0.500 ppb |
| Sum of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, G2 | <2.00 ppb |
| Aflatoxin M1, M2 (each) | <0.500 ppb |
| Deoxynivalenol (DON) | <100 ppb |
| Fumonisin B1, B2 (each) | <25.0 ppb |
| HT-2 toxin | <100 ppb |
| T-2 toxin | <10.0 ppb |
| Zearalenone | <30.0 ppb |
"<" means "less than the reporting limit." The lab looked for ochratoxin A and found none at or above 1 part per billion, the lowest level this method reports. It does not mean the lab measured exactly zero. No lab can prove a perfect zero; it can only say "not detected down to this level."
Labs use a few related terms for these floors (Armbruster & Pry, Clin Biochem Rev 2008):
Limit of detection (LOD): the lowest amount a method can reliably tell apart from a blank sample. Limit of quantitation (LOQ): the lowest amount the method can measure with acceptable accuracy and precision. It can equal the LOD or be higher. Reporting limit: the floor a lab prints on the report, often tied to the LOQ.
And what's a ppb? One part per billion is 1 microgram per kilogram (µg/kg). To picture it: a billion seconds is about 31.7 years, so one ppb is like one second in nearly 32 years. "<1.00 ppb" of OTA means less than a millionth of a gram in a whole kilogram of beans.
Why do two reports from the same lab show different limits?
If you compare our two sample reports, you'll notice the 2026 green decaf report shows OTA and aflatoxins at <5.0 ppb, while the 2024 Pure Health Coffee report shows OTA at <1.00 ppb. Same lab network, different numbers.
That's normal. The reports used different test panels and methods, and each method has its own reporting limits. The lesson for any shopper: always read the limit, not just the "not detected." "Not detected" at <1 ppb is a more sensitive result than "not detected" at <20 ppb. A report that says "pass" or "ND" with no limit at all leaves out the most useful number.
Which mycotoxins should a coffee lab report list?
At minimum, look for these by name:
- Ochratoxin A (OTA): the mycotoxin most studied in coffee (see our deep dive on mycotoxins in coffee).
- Aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2, ideally with a total.
Broader panels, like ours, also check DON, fumonisins, T-2, HT-2 and zearalenone. More analytes don't automatically mean better coffee, but they do mean fewer blind spots. And a vague line like "mycotoxins: negative," without naming which ones, tells you very little.
One more thing: a mold count (often shown as CFU/g, colony-forming units per gram) and a mycotoxin test (in ppb) measure different things. A mold count tells you about live mold; a mycotoxin test tells you about the toxins themselves.
What's a 5-point checklist for any coffee lab report?
Use this on any brand, including us:
- Is the lab named? Look for a real lab with an address, plus a report number you could ask them about. Bonus: ask whether the lab holds ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, the international standard for testing-lab competence (ISO).
- Is the sample clear? Green or roasted? Which coffee? A report on a different product, or a "representative" sample with no description, isn't much help.
- Is it recent? Check the received and reported dates. Coffee is a crop, and every harvest is a new lot.
- Are the mycotoxins named one by one? At least OTA and the four aflatoxins.
- Are the limits shown? Every "<" should have a number after it. The lower the number, the more sensitive the test.
And remember the small print. Our reports, like most, state that results relate only to the samples tested. That's honest, and it's why we test every lot instead of leaning on one great report forever.
How does Edge use lab reports?
Every lot of Pure Health Coffee is third-party tested by Eurofins before roasting. We post sample reports, not an exhaustive list, on our lab results page, with the full PDFs. In our sample Pure Health Coffee green-bean report, every mycotoxin tested was below the lab's reporting limit: ochratoxin A below 1 ppb and total aflatoxins below 2 ppb.
The coffee itself is organic, specialty-grade, shade-grown Peruvian Arabica, medium roasted, with notes of chocolate, caramel and roasted nuts. Mike Cullen started Edge in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2020 because he wanted a cup he could actually verify. Now you know how to verify it too.
The bottom line
A coffee lab report is less scary than it looks. Find the lab, the date and the sample. Check that each mycotoxin is named. Then read every "<" as "nothing found at or above this level," and look at how low that level is. Once you know those few lines, a COA goes from fine print to a useful buying tool.
Want to try it now? Open our sample reports and run the 5-point checklist yourself. Curious why we test before roasting? Read Mycotoxins in Coffee: What the Data Say.
FAQ
What does "<" mean on a coffee lab report? It means the result was below the lab's reporting limit. For example, "<1.00 ppb" for ochratoxin A means none was detected at or above 1 part per billion. It doesn't mean the lab measured exactly zero.
What is ppb in coffee testing? Parts per billion. One ppb equals one microgram per kilogram (µg/kg), so "<1 ppb" means less than a millionth of a gram per kilogram of coffee.
What's the difference between LOD and LOQ? The limit of detection is the lowest amount a method can reliably distinguish from a blank. The limit of quantitation is the lowest amount it can measure with acceptable accuracy and precision, and it can be the same or higher (Armbruster & Pry, 2008).
Should coffee be tested green or roasted? Both tell you something, but roasting reduces some mycotoxins by varying amounts, so green-bean testing shows what was present before roasting. Edge tests green beans from every lot.
Where can I see Edge Coffee's lab reports? On our lab results page, which has sample Eurofins reports as full PDFs.
Educational information about reading food-testing reports. Results relate only to the samples tested, as stated on each Eurofins report. Not medical advice.
Sources
- Khaneghah AM et al. The concentration and prevalence of ochratoxin A in coffee and coffee-based products: a global systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression. Fungal Biol. 2019. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31345415/ (doi:10.1016/j.funbio.2019.05.012)
- van der Stegen GH, Essens PJ, van der Lijn J. Effect of roasting conditions on reduction of ochratoxin A in coffee. J Agric Food Chem. 2001. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11600012/ (doi:10.1021/jf0105586)
- Blanc M et al. Behavior of ochratoxin A during green coffee roasting and soluble coffee manufacture. J Agric Food Chem. 1998. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10554297/
- Varga E et al. Stable isotope dilution assay for the accurate determination of mycotoxins in maize by UHPLC-MS/MS. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2012;402:2675-86. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22293971/ (doi:10.1007/s00216-012-5757-5)
- Armbruster DA, Pry T. Limit of blank, limit of detection and limit of quantitation. Clin Biochem Rev. 2008. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18852857/
- ISO/IEC 17025:2017, General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. https://www.iso.org/standard/66912.html
- Edge Coffee sample Eurofins report AR-24-JF-015481-01 (Pure Health Coffee green beans, Mar 2024), via /pages/lab-results