With the official implementation of the new national standard Hygienic Requirements for Disposable Sanitary Products (GB 15979-2024) on July 1st, this livelihood industry—whose annual output value is about to exceed 100 billion yuan—is undergoing the most thorough standard restructuring in two decades.
For the first time, the new national standard explicitly classifies 3 categories of carcinogens, including thiourea, as prohibited substances. It also implements "negative list" management for raw materials, forbidding the use of waste recycled materials. Compared with the 2002 version of the old standard, the new national standard adds key testing items such as pH value, migratable fluorescent whitening agents, and heavy metal content. Among these adjustments, the limit for total bacterial colonies in tampons has been significantly reduced from ≤200 CFU per gram to ≤100 CFU per gram, and the limit for fungi has been tightened from ≤100 CFU per gram to ≤20 CFU per gram, according to the Chinese Government Network. Taking migratable fluorescent whitening agents as an example, the new national standard stipulates that such substances "must not be detected" in paper-containing products, and dual verification shall be conducted via ultraviolet spectrophotometry and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in accordance with the GB/T 27741-2018 standard.
A qualitative leap has also been achieved in the supervision of the production process: the previously scattered indicators related to environmental hygiene, disinfection effectiveness, and initial contaminating bacteria have been integrated into unified hygiene requirements for the production process. Enterprises are required to establish a full-process traceability system covering the entire chain from raw materials to finished products. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has clearly stated that products manufactured after July 2025 must comply with the new regulations, while products conforming to the old standard can still be sold until the end of their shelf life. However, consumers are advised to give priority to purchasing products labeled with "GB 15979-2024".
sanitary napkin
sanitary pad
disposable pads
incontinence sanitary pads
hygiene product
women's sanitary pad
