2026-08-06
Italy’s Agriculture Ministry has renewed the designation of Omniadue Lab, a private laboratory in Orvieto, to issue analysis certificates for the wine sector, extending a role that is central to regulatory checks on wine production, movement and trade.
The renewal was set out in a decree dated July 24 and published on Wednesday in Italy’s official gazette, the Gazzetta Ufficiale. The measure covers Omniadue Lab di Dalmonte S. e Picciolini C., located on Via dei Vasari in Orvieto, in the region of Umbria. Under the decree, the laboratory remains authorized to release analytical certificates for wine-sector products, but only for the specific tests listed in the decree’s annex.
The decision matters because analytical certificates are part of the control system that supports legal compliance in wine. They help verify the composition and condition of products, back up labeling and marketing rules, and support traceability across the supply chain. In a country where wine is both an economic sector and a protected agricultural product, the designation of accredited laboratories is a technical but important part of market oversight.
The ministry said the renewal followed a further application submitted by the laboratory on June 8. It also said the lab had shown that it obtained accreditation on May 22 for the relevant tests and for its quality system under the UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard, the benchmark used to assess the competence of testing laboratories. In Italy, accreditation is handled by ACCREDIA, the country’s sole national accreditation body.
The decree was issued by the head of the PQA I office within the ministry’s Directorate General for the Promotion of Agri-Food Quality. It cites a wide set of European Union and Italian rules that govern official controls in the wine trade and the designation of laboratories authorized to carry out those analyses.
Among the main legal references is Regulation (EU) No. 1308/2013, the EU framework for the common organization of agricultural markets. That regulation provides for member states to designate laboratories authorized to perform official analyses in the wine sector. The Italian decree also points to EU rules that require analytical methods to be based, where appropriate, on those recommended and published by the International Organization of Vine and Wine, known by its French acronym OIV.
The ministry said the analytical methods covered by the renewal are based on OIV-recommended procedures for the listed tests. For a smaller group of tests, including lithium, stability testing, humidity, proline, phenolic substances and microscopic examination of the wine and any sediment, the decree says methods from an Italian ministerial decree dated March 12, 1986 were used because no OIV-recommended methods were available for those parameters.
The renewal keeps in place a designation that Omniadue Lab already held. The same laboratory received a previous renewal through a decree dated June 30, 2022, which was published in the official gazette on July 9 of that year. The new measure is therefore an additional renewal rather than a first-time authorization.
For wineries and exporters, the decision helps preserve continuity in access to recognized analytical services. Wine-sector certificates can be required in a range of commercial and regulatory situations, including quality verification, official inspections and documentation tied to product circulation. In practice, having a designated laboratory in a well-known wine area such as Orvieto supports producers that need certified analytical results from a facility operating within the official control framework.
The decree also fits into a broader system of food and agricultural oversight in Europe. It refers to Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls, the main EU law covering inspections and other official activities meant to enforce food and feed law as well as related plant and animal health rules. Italy adapted its domestic legislation to that regulation through Legislative Decree No. 27 of Feb. 2, 2021, another measure cited in the ministry’s act.
The text reflects how much of wine regulation rests on technical verification. Chemical and physical testing can be used to confirm alcohol strength, acidity, stability and other characteristics relevant to compliance with winemaking practices and marketing standards. Those checks are also part of a wider effort to protect appellations, prevent fraud and maintain confidence in the identity of products sold in domestic and export markets.
Italy’s wine sector operates under dense national and European rules, from vineyard practices to cellar treatments and labeling. The decree specifically recalls EU provisions on authorized oenological practices, production restrictions and the publication of OIV technical files. That legal framework is designed to make sure wines sold under protected or regulated categories meet common standards and can be checked through recognized methods.
The ministry’s renewal does not create new testing rules. Instead, it confirms that Omniadue Lab continues to meet the conditions required to carry out and certify a defined set of analyses within the wine sector. The laboratory’s accreditation under ISO/IEC 17025 was a key condition for that outcome, since the standard addresses both the technical competence of laboratory staff and methods and the reliability of the quality system used to produce results.
The measure was signed within the ministry’s current administrative structure, now formally known as the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry. The decree cites the internal chain of directives and appointments that gave the office authority to issue the act, including the ministry’s 2026 management directives and the delegation of signing powers to non-general management offices.
For producers, bottlers and traders, the practical impact is straightforward: Omniadue Lab remains part of the network of laboratories recognized by the Italian state for wine-sector analysis certificates. For regulators, the renewal reinforces a control model built on accredited testing, harmonized methods and documented traceability, all of which remain central to the way Italy monitors one of its most valuable agri-food industries.