Material that does not meet the applicable identity, composition or purity specifications is rejected, placed on hold, or prevented from being released for sale. A batch is not approved merely because it passes one portion of the testing panel — every applicable specification has to be met before that lot can be sold.

Each production lot is assigned a traceable lot number connecting the source material, manufacturing records and laboratory results. You can compare the lot number printed on your product with the lot number shown on the corresponding Certificate of Analysis to confirm the report matches what you purchased.

Kava is an agricultural product. Natural differences in cultivar, growing conditions, age at harvest, root composition, drying and seasonal conditions can affect color, aroma, taste and kavalactone profile from one harvest to the next. Specifications and batch testing control these variations within defined limits — they don't pretend that a botanical product will be identical from harvest to harvest.

Independent laboratories provide formal confirmation of critical specifications using accredited, validated methods. Our in-house KavaLytics® system provides faster process screening for identity, moisture, chemotype and kavalactone consistency, which helps us catch variation early — during incoming inspection and throughout production, not just at the end. In-house screening supports process control, but it does not replace the independent, accredited testing required to release a lot for sale.

No. FDA registration identifies a facility within the regulatory system — it means the facility has registered with the FDA as required for certain food and supplement manufacturers, not that the FDA has reviewed, endorsed or approved any individual product. Our quality program is based on facility controls, documented procedures, traceability, specifications and independent testing, not on an implication that the FDA has approved a specific kava product.

We use the lateral roots, peeled basal stump, and peeled first-node basal stem of the kava plant. No aerial parts — leaves, stems above the first node, or other above-ground plant material — are used in any of our products.

Testing is based on the risks associated with the material and process, not applied uniformly regardless of relevance. Agricultural inputs like traditional powders may call for pesticide screening, while solvent-extracted products require residual-solvent testing that wouldn't apply to a simple dried powder. We don't run every possible assay on every lot — we run the tests that are actually relevant to that product's material and manufacturing process.

Store the product sealed, dry, and protected from excessive heat, humidity and direct sunlight. Refrigerated and fresh-frozen products should follow the storage directions printed on the package. Proper storage protects flavor, consistency and microbiological quality after the seal is broken.

ppm (parts per million) and ppb (parts per billion) are units used to express very small concentrations. 1 ppm is equal to 1 microgram of a substance per gram of product (µg/g); 1 ppb is equal to 1 nanogram per gram (ng/g), a thousand times smaller. Heavy metals like lead, arsenic and cadmium are typically reported in ppm, while trace contaminants such as aflatoxins and certain pesticide residues are reported in ppb, since the safe limits for those substances are far lower. For reference, under the Harmonized Multinational Kava Product Standards, lead, arsenic and cadmium are capped at 2 ppm and mercury at 0.1 ppm in finished products, while Aflatoxin B1 is capped at 5 ppb.

Kavalactones are the primary active compounds in kava. "Kavalactone percentage," usually shown as % w/w (percent weight-per-weight), tells you what portion of the material's weight is made up of the six major kavalactones: kavain, dihydrokavain, methysticin, dihydromethysticin, yangonin and desmethoxyyangonin. This is measured using HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) or NIR (near-infrared) spectroscopy and is the main indicator of a product's potency. A COA will typically report each of the six kavalactones individually as well as a total kavalactone content for the batch.

A chemotype is a numeric fingerprint describing the relative abundance of the six major kavalactones in a given kava, ranked from most to least abundant. Each kavalactone is assigned a number — 1 = desmethoxyyangonin, 2 = dihydrokavain, 3 = yangonin, 4 = kavain, 5 = dihydromethysticin, 6 = methysticin — and the chemotype code lists them in decreasing order of concentration. For example, a chemotype of "462" means kavain is the most abundant kavalactone present, followed by dihydromethysticin, then methysticin. This coding lets growers, processors and labs quickly compare the chemical profile of different kava cultivars without reading a full lab report.

"Noble" kava refers to cultivars that are relatively high in kavain and low in dihydromethysticin and flavokavains — traditionally the varieties considered appropriate for regular beverage consumption. Under industry standards, a noble kava chemotype must begin with 4 or 2 (meaning kavain or dihydrokavain is the most abundant kavalactone present), and total flavokavain content must stay under strict limits. Non-noble cultivars, sometimes called "tudei" or "two-day" kava, carry a different chemical profile and are not used in beverage-grade products. We only source and sell noble kava, and every lot is chemotyped to confirm it before it's approved for sale.

Flavokavains (A, B and C) are minor compounds found in kava that, unlike kavalactones, are not desirable in beverage-grade kava — some research has associated elevated flavokavain content with liver stress. Recognized kava standards cap combined flavokavain content at no more than 0.4% of dried weight, and no more than 5% relative to total kavalactone content. We test every lot for flavokavain A, B and C and reject any material that exceeds these voluntary limits, which are among the strictest applied anywhere in the kava industry.

LOD (Limit of Detection) is the smallest amount of a substance a lab instrument can reliably detect at all. LOQ (Limit of Quantification) is the smallest amount that can be reliably measured with accuracy, and is always equal to or higher than the LOD. When a COA reports a result as "ND" (not detected) or "< LOQ," it means the substance, if present at all, falls below the level the lab can confidently measure. These thresholds matter because they tell you how sensitive a given test actually was, not just what number it produced — a "not detected" result from a highly sensitive method means more than the same result from a less sensitive one.

A complete testing program also covers purity: heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) via ICP-MS; mycotoxins such as aflatoxins and ochratoxin A via HPLC or LC-MS/MS; pesticide and herbicide residues via GC-MS/MS; residual solvents where solvent extraction is used; microbial contamination (Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, Staph, yeast and mold); and moisture content, which affects shelf life and susceptibility to microbial growth. Which of these apply to a given lot depends on the material and product category — a traditional powder and a solvent-based extract don't carry the same risks, so they aren't tested identically. A product can pass identity and potency testing and still fail on purity, which is why the applicable purity tests are run on every lot rather than only the tests required by law.

Kava is an agricultural root crop grown in soil, and depending on growing conditions, harvesting, and handling, it can pick up bacteria from the environment, water, or improper processing if controls aren't in place. Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus are pathogenic bacteria capable of causing serious foodborne illness, with symptoms ranging from vomiting and diarrhea to, in vulnerable individuals, life-threatening infections. Because kava is typically prepared by mixing powder with cold or room-temperature water rather than cooking it, there's no heating step to kill bacteria before it's consumed, which makes pre-sale testing especially important. We test every lot and require these specific pathogens to be completely absent from the sample tested, not just below some allowable count.

Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by certain molds, most notably species of Aspergillus, when they infect crops in the field or during storage under warm, humid conditions. Aflatoxins are the best known and most concerning mycotoxin group — Aflatoxin B1 in particular is classified as a human carcinogen, which is why even trace amounts are tightly regulated. Because kava root is dried and stored before processing, it can be vulnerable to mold growth if drying and storage aren't well controlled. We test every lot for Aflatoxin B1, total aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, G2) and Ochratoxin A using HPLC or LC-MS/MS, and our limits — 5 ppb for Aflatoxin B1 — sit well inside the range considered safe by recognized standards.

CFU/g stands for "colony forming units per gram" — a way of counting how many live bacteria, yeast or mold cells are in a sample by growing them in a lab and counting the colonies that form. Background organisms like total yeast, mold and aerobic count are reported this way because a small amount is normal in any botanical product, and what matters is staying under an established limit. Pathogens like Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria and Staph are treated differently: because even a small amount can cause illness, they're tested on a presence/absence basis, such as "not present in 25g," rather than a CFU count. A result of "not detected" means the lab specifically looked for that organism in the tested sample and found none.