About Our ISO Accreditation

Alkemist Labs, an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Accredited Laboratory, has the capabilities of testing of all plants. Our flexible scope designation is rare, and underscores our expertise.

Alkemist Labs’ ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation is for testing dietary supplements, crude plant matter, plant extracts, oils, raw materials, finished products, fungal, algal species, and cannabis. Those tests methods include Dietary Supplement Identification and Qualitative Analysis by High Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography (HPTLC), Botanical Identification and Qualitative Analysis by Microscopy, and designated Cannabis Testing. Our accreditation meets the A2LA P112 Flexible Scope Policy permitting allowance for the lab’s discretion to adapt method parameters to a wide variety of preparations and products to best meet customer needs.

The accreditation process involved a thorough assessment and review of the lab’s quality management system and competence to perform Dietary Supplement Identification and Qualitative Analysis HPTLC testing and Botanical Identification and Qualitative Analysis by Microscopy. It’s not restricted to a single method or set of materials like many ISO/IEC 17025 accreditations, rather, it is for herbs by both Microscopy and HPTLC.  In addition, the scope of accreditation also includes Alkemist’s internally developed cannabinoids and terpenes assays.

The accreditation demonstrates that Alkemist Labs meets technical and quality benchmarks as required by ISO/IEC 17025:2017. With the successful completion of the A2LA evaluation process, including an assessment of the laboratory’s compliance with the A2LA Food Testing Program Requirements containing 2018 “AOAC Guidelines for Laboratories Performing Microbiological and Chemical Analyses of Food, Dietary Supplements, and Pharmaceuticals”  accreditation was granted to Alkemist Labs to perform tests within our scope on dietary supplements, crude plant matter, plant extracts, oils, raw materials, finished products, fungal, algal species, and cannabis. 

The Alkemist Labs Accreditation Certificate may be viewed here.

Why does our flexible scope accreditation set us so far apart? There are almost 400,000 vascular plants on earth (that we know of), not including algae or fungus, which we also test. Of those 400,000 there are about 2,000 Herbs of Commerce traded and we test nearly all of them using Microscopy, HPTLC, HPLC, and GC. If it’s an herb we don’t have in our reference library for comparison yet, we utilize an extensive network of botanists around the globe to locate, procure and prepare reference materials to add to our ever-growing herbarium.

It’s important to ask the scope of the accreditation a testing lab touts since it could be for something like pH testing, and may be irrelevant to your needs.

*A2LA is the largest U.S.-based, multi-discipline accreditation body with over 35 years of experience providing internationally recognized accreditation services and quality training.  A2LA’s world-class accreditation services encompass testing and calibration laboratories, medical testing laboratories, inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers, reference material producers and product certification bodies. Organizations are accredited to international standards and field-specific requirements developed with government and industry collaboration. A2LA also offers a wide variety of both public and private on-site training programs to complement the various accreditation programs. 

 Contact us to learn more.

Join the Alkemist Newsletter