Are you a parent concerned about the materials used in your children's clothing? Or an environmentalist worried about clothes that release hazardous or toxic materials into the air? Dubai's Central Laboratory (DCL) offers a garment testing service — at affordable rates — that can help ease your worries. The lab provides a wide range of quality physical and chemical tests to ensure that your hard-earned money is spent wisely and aligns with your expectations for safety and quality.
Available to the public, this service ensures that garments sold in Dubai conform to stringent safety and environmental regulations, thereby reducing the risk of harmful exposure to chemicals or poorly made products. The garment testing service offered by DCL allows clients to submit garments for comprehensive analysis. The primary goal is to verify that clothing items meet local and international standards for safety, durability, and environmental impact. The service includes a variety of tests designed to assess the physical and chemical properties of textiles, ensuring that garments are safe to wear and free from harmful substances.
Tests include: Fabric strength and durability, which assesses the resilience of the material; colour fastness, which checks whether the garment’s colours are resistant to washing, rubbing, and exposure to light; and chemical composition analysis, which focuses on identifying hazardous substances such as formaldehyde and certain dyes that can pose health risks to consumers. The presence of banned dyes, which can release carcinogenic compounds, is also tested.
The service is offered at accessible rates, starting at Dh30 for basic tests. The cost varies based on the type and complexity of the tests required. For the full list of tests and their prices, visit the Dubai Municipality website.
Consumers wishing to test their garments should follow these steps: Go to the Dubai Municipality website, select Services – Individual Services – Test Samples of Consumer Products - Apply Now, or visit Dubai Municipality - Dubai Central Laboratory Department. Bring the samples to the lab or through a shipping company. Pay the fees and receive the test result report through the website or by e-mail. The test begins once the required fees are paid, and you must pay the test fees within 10 days of submission. If the fees are not paid within this period, the application is automatically cancelled.
Official working hours at Dubai Central Laboratory are Monday to Thursday from 7.30am to 3.30pm and Friday from 7.30am to 12pm. Payment for the service can be made through the Dubai Municipality app, the Dubai Now app, or via the Dubai Smart Government Portal. People can also pay via Al Ansari Exchange, Noqodi digital wallet, direct debit, credit card, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay.
All terms and conditions related to the testing of consumer product samples must be reviewed and approved through the Dubai Municipality website before applying. The DCL reserves the right to request additional samples for analysis during the testing process, and customers must provide these within the stated duration or else the request will be cancelled.
