Raw AAS / peptide powders (pre-formulation) — HMTc Standard

How limits are set

These products sit outside the food and dietary-supplement frameworks, but they are elemental-impurity-governed as pharmaceuticals. ICH Q3D(R2), harmonized across the US, EU, and Japan and enforceable through USP <232>-<233>, sets permitted daily exposures for elemental impurities in drug products and, in Table A.2.2, the corresponding route-based concentration limits (Option 1, for daily intakes of 10 grams or less). HMTc adopts those Table A.2.2 concentrations as the binding ceiling for this class, applied by route: oral products (SARMs, orally-dosed research chemicals) take the oral limits; injectable, nasal, and sublingual products take the stricter parenteral limits. Aluminium, which ICH Q3D does not address, is bound by the FDA large-volume-parenteral limit (21 CFR 201.323) on injectables.

Every analyte is measured on every lot by validated ICP-MS with reflex inorganic-arsenic speciation. Inorganic arsenic and methylmercury are bounded by their parent totals, and hexavalent chromium by total chromium (ICH Q3D governs chromium as the total element). Certification here is heavy-metal safety only: HMTc does not endorse, approve, or vouch for the efficacy or the legality of these products; the mark speaks solely to an elemental-impurity burden held within the ICH Q3D ceiling on the tested lot.

Master Limit Table

All values in ppb (µg/kg), as-sold basis. 8 of 11 analytes carry a firm ceiling; the remaining 3 are toxic species bounded by their parent totals (species ≤ total, measured on every lot), so every analyte carries an enforceable ceiling. A brand meeting every value on a like-for-like basis qualifies for the mark.

Every claim analyte is equal at the gate. A product is certified only when every analyte is at or below 100% of its published government floor or disclosed read-across; above the limit, on any metal, it is not certified and carries no mark.

Derivation

For Raw AAS / peptide powders (pre-formulation), each HMTc limit is the strictest maximum level any credible government sets for the product, named in the Binding column with the count of jurisdictions that concur at that value. Where no government regulates the analyte, the cell is a mandatory control or a not-material determination, never an invented number.

Risk Flag

On the published occurrence literature to date, Raw AAS / peptide powders (pre-formulation) shows no systematic gap between typical market levels and the limit — the limit being the strictest government maximum for the product (Method v2.0). Certification is decided on a product’s own tested result, not on a distribution; an individual lot or supplier can still exceed a limit.

See the cross-category summary of the ingredients that most often struggle.