Two tiers
- Tier A
- An independent certifier or accredited lab verifies the claim (USDA Organic, GOTS, NATRUE, Certified Humane, Informed Sport, ISO-17025 batch testing), stated on the brand's own site. Registry lookup still pending. The card says what the verification covers.
- Tier B
- The claim comes from the brand, checked against its ingredient list or product page. No independent certificate covers the claim.
Badges
- Seed-Oil-Free
- Zero seed oils: no canola, soybean, corn, sunflower (including high oleic), safflower, cottonseed, grapeseed or sesame oil. Awarded only where I read the ingredient list or an independent seed-oil certifier covers it. A brand without this badge has not been cleared, even if it never claimed otherwise.
- Organic
- Certified organic by USDA, GOTS or equivalent.
- Pasture / Grass-Fed
- Animals raised on pasture or grass. Says nothing about supplemental feed. See Soy/Corn-Free.
- Soy/Corn-Free Feed
- The brand states animals get no corn or soy, or the food contains none. Strictest badge. Applies only to the product line named on the card.
- Natural Fibers
- Cotton, wool, latex, linen or hemp, with no polyester, nylon or polyurethane foam in the listed products.
- Natural Ingredients
- Formula avoids synthetic fragrance and petrochemicals. Tier A means a natural-cosmetics standard such as NATRUE or COSMOS covers it.
- Lab-Tested
- An independent lab or certifier tests every batch. Results published or certifier-verified. See Peptides for the stricter bar.
Best fit and Below the bar
"Best fit" ranks brands by points: 3 for Seed-Oil-Free, Soy/Corn-Free Feed or Lab-Tested, 2 for any other badge, 2 for Tier A, minus 1 per flag. A brand that fails a core goal goes to the bottom of every list, marked Below the bar, whatever its score. Today that is Vital Farms, because its hens are fed mainly corn and soy.
Flags
A flag marks something that conflicts with the goals of this index, such as corn and soy in feed or a mixed line with synthetics. Flagged brands stay listed, so you see the trade-off. Use "Hide brands with flags" to filter them out.
What we do not do
No paid placement and no affiliate ranking. A brand cannot pay to change a tier. "Shop" buttons are plain links to the brand's own site and earn us nothing. Check the flags and the specific product before you buy.
Peptides: no brands listed
The peptide market is mostly vendors marketing "research use only" products, and a Google search for testing standards returns mostly those same vendors. A brand's own claim of third-party testing is not enough. Nothing is listed until it meets every rule below, and injectable peptides for human use stay out until reviewed by a lawyer or regulator-savvy advisor. This is not medical advice.
Requirements to list
- A certificate of analysis (COA) for every batch, tied to a batch or lot number printed on the product.
- The lab is independent of the seller and accredited (ISO/IEC 17025).
- HPLC purity result and mass spectrometry identity confirmation, with the raw chromatogram available.
- Endotoxin and sterility results for anything injected or applied to broken skin.
- The COA can be verified with the lab directly (lab contact or verification link).
- Cosmetic peptides (topicals) need a full ingredient list and a named testing lab. These are easier to list first.