Fotografia di un microscopio

Laboratory tests represent an essential tool to objectively evaluate the characteristics and performance of materials and products, and to verify and certify their compliance with standards, technical specifications, rules and prescriptions in general, in order to facilitate their marketing and uphold the image of quality products.

The Excise, Customs and Monopolies Agency plays an impartial role in this market, characterized by a guarantee of legality and impartiality that naturally derives from its historical institutional roots. It is these very roots that enables us to emphasize the considerable experience and the highest standards of practice of the Excise, Customs and Monopolies Agency’s Chemical Laboratories staff, as well as the validity and completeness of the technologically advanced equipment with which they are provided.

It’s exactly thanks to its experience that during the Covid- 19 health emergency, the Agency has made available the professionalism and competence of its laboratories for the purposes of carrying out analyses aimed at controlling facial masks for medical use imported into our country.

All activities involving tests and measurements are undertaken in accordance with the national, community and international regulations in force. Each action - from the preliminary feasibility analysis to the "standardized" drafting of the test reports - complies with the procedures drawn up in accordance with the provisions of the EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard to ensure the quality of the results.

Achieving consistent quality of test results is also ensured by the participation in interlaboratory circuits organized by the Agency’s Proficiency Testing Sector, the first Structure in Italy accredited by ACCREDIA in compliance with the UNI EN ISO/IEC 17043 standard, and by the use, for some product categories, of the Agency's Official Methods, issued by the Laboratories Office of the Anti-Fraud Directorate, national reference centre for the issuance of official methods.

The methods currently issued are the following (MAD: Official Method of the Customs and Monopolies Agency):

  • MAD 01:2019 rev.2 - Determination of Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and other cannabinoids by gas chromatography
  • MAD 02:2014 rev.0 - Binary blends of textile fibers: protein fibers and other fibers
  • MAD 03:2015 rev.1 - Determination of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy)
  • MAD 04:2015 rev.2 - Determination of heroin and 6-MAM by gas chromatography
  • MAD 05:2017 rev.2 - Determination of cocaine by gas chromatography.