PurePep is dedicated to making sovereign health safer by providing independent testing of peptides, nootropics, steroids, and other health and wellness compounds. We help buyers confirm the safety and quality of products they've sourced through transparent testing.
Our methodology is designed to provide an up-to-date view of the safety of the products and vendors currently available on the market, constantly evolving to ensure our published ratings are easy to understand and an accurate picture of the risk the public is exposed to.
Individual product samples (typically vials of lyophilized peptide powder) are sent to commercial labs for testing. Purity and quantity metrics and batch identification details are used to score the tests. We then use these scores to calculate a PurePep Rating for each product/vendor pair.
PurePep sources samples from vendors, across a selection of products, to ensure authenticity and proper chain of custody. Once collected by PurePep, the samples are sent for testing to trusted third-party labs.
PurePep requests High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) as the primary analytical method for all samples, to measure:
Identity: presence of the expected active substance.
Purity: quantification the expected substance, i.e. excluding contaminants or byproducts of degradation. 98% is widely considered the minimum acceptable purity for example by US Pharmacopeia (USP).
Potency: actual quantity of the expected active substance present in the container compared to the vendor's claim, expressed in % of divergence of the tested value vs. the claim. +/-5% is considered good.
Batch Identification: evaluation of how batch information is communicated and documented with the product, ranging from no identification to batch identifiers printed directly on product packaging.
While vendor testing certificates are taken into account to understand batch claims, they are not scored as part of the tests listed for a vendor and product, and do not contribute to PurePep Ratings.
Each lab test receives a score from 0 to 10 based on three key quality metrics:
Purity Score (0-4 points):
Quantity Score (0-4 points): The quantity score measures how closely the tested amount matches the vendor's labeled quantity:
Identifier Score (0-2 points): This component evaluates the presence and quality of batch identification information, and if present, the way in which batch claims are presented:
The individual lab test score is the sum of all three scores: Overall Score = Purity Score + Quantity Score + Identifier Score, resulting in a range of 0-10 points.
Special Cases: If a test indicates that the product did not contain the expected substance at all, the test automatically receives a score of 0, regardless of other metrics.
For each product, the overall product score is calculated as the average of all individual lab test scores for that product. This means products with multiple tests will have their scores averaged together, providing a comprehensive view of quality consistency over time.
At PurePep, we believe that transparency and independent verification are essential for building trust in the peptide marketplace. Our testing methodology provides consumers with objective data to help them make informed decisions about their purchases. Through our scoring system, we create PurePep Ratings that reflect both individual product quality and overall vendor reliability. This commitment to independent testing and transparent reporting empowers buyers to navigate the market with confidence, knowing they have access to verified, third-party quality assessments for the products they're considering.
