Which route are you seeking?
An application begins by choosing a route, before any fee or full data submission. The route decides what happens first, and only one of the two is the official certification decision.
For a brand that does not yet know whether the product is certification-ready. Nonpublic. Read the applicable limit, learn where the product stands on exact quantitative results, and correct the cause before any official evaluation. No mark is awarded during readiness.
How readiness works →For a brand with suitable recent evidence, stable controls, and confidence that the product is ready for official evaluation. The mark issues only after the certification evidence demonstrates conformance.
The certification process →Route B: the certification process
Direct certification runs in three stages. The audit is the long one, and it is long because the panel is ten analytes across every subcategory a brand sells into, tested by an accredited laboratory rather than declared.
One application covers the brand and every product in it. Name the subcategories you sell into; that determines which standards apply.
Four to eight weeks. Ingredient and formulation review, then the ten-analyte panel run at an accredited laboratory on each product form.
Licensing and permissions letters issue per product, the public brand page goes live, and lot surveillance begins.
Artwork
Program Manual Part 2.5 governs who may display the mark and what may be claimed alongside it, but sets no minimum size, clear space or color-reproduction rules. Those belong in a mark usage guide that does not exist yet. Until it does, this page states no dimensions rather than inventing them: a printer following a fabricated spec would be following nothing.
Eligibility
A product is eligible when a published subcategory standard exists for its form. Standards publish per subcategory, never as a category-wide release, so a subcategory can open long before the rest of its category does. An application is not charged until the standard for that subcategory publishes.
There is no pass-by-declaration route. A brand cannot certify by attesting that it meets the standard; it certifies by testing to it at an accredited laboratory and submitting the results. That is the whole difference between this mark and a self-affixed claim.
HMTc can be held alone or bundled with Certified Paleo, KETO Certified and Grain-Free Certified on a single application. Bundling reduces audit duplication but does not change the analyte panel or the thresholds.
What you pay for, by component
A brand should see every component of the cost before a nonconforming result, not discover it after. The dollar figures are quoted by the calculator below and scale with revenue; the components themselves are listed here so nothing is a surprise later.
Estimate your certification fee
This calculator prices Heavy Metal Tested & Certified on its own. Fees are annual, quoted in USD, and scale with the applicant’s gross annual revenue so that certification stays reachable for a small brand. Choose a revenue band, a term and a processing speed to read the fee for that combination.
An estimate, not a quote. The figure is the annual-basis certification fee for the revenue band, term and speed selected; laboratory analysis is included, and the number of distinct product forms can add to the total. Bundling with Certified Paleo, KETO Certified or Grain-Free Certified is arranged on application and is not priced here.
What the fee covers
Renewal reminders go out sixty, thirty and ten days before a certificate lapses. Renewal for a brand in good standing is a short-form process; the analyte panel is re-run, but the audit is not repeated from zero.
Questions
Can I certify several products on one application?
Yes. Certification covers the brand, and a single application can include many products. Each product still receives its own certificate against the standard for its subcategory and basis, because those differ per product form.
How long does it take?
Four to eight weeks from submission for standard processing. Rush options run ten business days for an additional $5,000 or three business days for $10,000, for time-sensitive launches.
What happens when the certificate expires?
Renewal reminders go out sixty, thirty and ten days before expiry. Renewal is streamlined for a brand in good standing, and multi-year renewals carry the same multi-year discounts.
Are there discounts for small brands?
Pricing is revenue-based rather than flat, so a company with lower gross annual revenue pays a lower annual fee. That is the mechanism by which certification stays reachable rather than a separate discount.
Which programs can be combined?
Certified Paleo, KETO Certified and Grain-Free Certified can be held together, and Heavy Metal Tested can be added for eligible product categories. Bundling reduces duplicated audit work; it does not relax any threshold.
What if my subcategory has no published standard yet?
Register interest in it. Standards publish per subcategory the moment each is defensibly ready, never as a category-wide release, so a subcategory can publish long before the rest of its category. An application is not charged until the standard for that subcategory publishes.
Can lab reports we already have count toward certification?
Yes, within a defined allowance. Every product enters through a three-lot baseline, and a brand that already runs a mature, accredited testing program can credit qualifying prior results for up to two of those three production lots, then complete the baseline with a single new full-panel lot run for the program. Prior results qualify when they come from an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory, sit at or below the program's reporting limit, were produced within the preceding twelve months, arrive as structured data under chain of custody, are expressed in or convertible to the product's native basis, and are credited only for the analytes they measured. The new lot is sampled independently and runs the full panel, so existing data removes duplicated work without standing in for the program's own certification evidence.
Apply directly here. Name the brand, the products you want certified, and whether you already hold recent accredited lab results, and the program responds with next steps and a confirmed quote. Heavy Metal Tested & Certified is operated by the Institute of Contaminant Standards, which issues permissions letters and holds the lot record once a certificate is in force.