Glossary
Chain of custody
FulfillmentVerificationUpdated 2026-08-23
The short answerChain of custody is the documented sequence of everyone who has held a given material, when they held it, and under what conditions.
For research supply it is what connects a certificate of analysis to the specific vial a customer received. Without it, a certificate is a document about a different object.
What a usable record contains
- Lot identity assigned at production and carried on every subsequent record
- Receipt date and condition on arrival
- Storage location and conditions while held
- The tie between an outbound order and the lot that filled it
Why buyers should ask about it
The question that separates suppliers is simple: six months from now, can you tell me which
lot shipped on this order. A supplier who can answer has real inventory discipline. A supplier
who cannot has a certificate library that is decorative, because no certificate can be connected to
anything a customer holds.
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