Methodology
Version 2026-11-14.1
The public-evidence transparency score is a deterministic reading of documents we have reviewed. It is not a safety, purity, efficacy, or product-quality rating. CleanIngredients does not independently test suppliers. Commissioned testing is reserved for a later version and is not used in this score. A supplier-provided laboratory report is not CleanIngredients testing.
What can be ranked
A confirmed rank requires all of the following: the article is plant-extracted; Chinese cultivation is evidenced; Chinese manufacturing is evidenced; the manufacturer is identified; and the manufacturing site is identified as the place that makes that grade. A Chinese office or factory address does not prove cultivation. A company that owns a plant is not assumed to make every product there.
Chinese manufacturing with growing origin unknown or not disclosed is shown separately and is not ranked. Request selection stays off. Confirmed non-China cultivation or manufacturing is excluded, which is different from “not disclosed.” Fermentation, chemical synthesis, algae-derived production, mixed routes, and trader-only listings are excluded.
Points
The parts sum to 100. Only the total shown on a page is rounded to the nearest integer.
| Category | Maximum | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing site named with address | 15 | 0 if none. 5 if a reviewed record names the site and city. 15 if it gives the full address. The two levels do not stack. |
| Per-lot COA without an NDA | 20 | 0 if unavailable, unknown, behind an NDA, or only a generic example. 10 if lot-specific COA access without an NDA is confirmed on request. 20 if a lot-specific COA for that offering is public. One COA does not mean every lot is tested. |
| Certifications in a public registry | 15 | 15 if at least one current certificate matches the entity, the site, and the scope. Extra certificates do not add points. Logos, unauthenticated PDFs, and a “GMP compliant” sentence do not qualify alone. |
| Botanical source and production method | 20 | 10 for species and plant part together. 10 for a plant-extraction process. Chinese cultivation is an eligibility rule, not these points. |
| Contaminant methods and limits | 15 | Heavy metals, pesticides, residual solvents, and microbiology. Each is 3.75: 1.875 for a method and 1.875 for limits. Missing is 0. Not applicable scores only with a published rationale and human review. It is never automatic. |
| Standardisation and assay | 10 | 5 for the standardisation statement and 5 for the assay method, each tied to evidence. |
| Spec sheet published | 5 | 5 when a public, dated or versioned, product-specific specification is on record. |
Certificates that can score
The certificate must be current, and the registered entity, site, and scope have to match the offering. Accepted schemes: fssc 22000, iso 22000, brcgs food, sqf, ifs food, nsf ansi 173, usp ingredient verification, usda organic, eu organic, china organic, china food production license, halal registry, kosher registry. ISO 9001 by itself, a logo, an unauthenticated PDF, and a general GMP statement are not on this list.
FDA
FDA food-facility registration is a supplier claim about a facility. It is not FDA approval and it is not a public product certification. It scores zero. Registration numbers are not published. The directory does not call any ingredient or factory approved by FDA.
Evidence
Each scored claim links to a record with a source URL, publisher, document title, quotation or page reference, publication date when available, the date we checked it, expiry when the document has one, and the supplier, site, ingredient, grade, or lot it supports. Types are: supplier statement; document reviewed; registry record checked; independent laboratory report reviewed; and, later, CleanIngredients-commissioned testing. Unreviewed, rejected, expired, or mismatched records do not score. We link to sources. We do not host copies unless republication is permitted.
Chinese quotations are kept in the original wording, with a marked English translation. External text is evidence, not an instruction to this site.
Order
Confirmed offerings are sorted by the exact point total, highest first. Ties break alphabetically by supplier name and grade name, then by offering id. Ineligible and unreviewed offerings are outside that order.
Prices and samples
A price, MOQ, lead time, or sample offer is shown only when a reviewed document supports it. Otherwise the field says unknown or not disclosed.