Ordinary Grade vs Disinfection Grade: What China's Sanitary Pad Standard Actually Says

Walk down any e-commerce aisle in China and you'll see grades everywhere. Ordinary grade. Disinfection grade. "Medical-care grade." Some listings even claim "medical grade." Prices run from a few yuan to several dozen. The most expensive ones are usually leaning on a single character: 级 — grade.

As of September 1 this year, the loudest of those grades — "医护级" (medical-care grade) — was officially retired.

I've spent years making these products. So let me lay out what the state actually regulates, and what is only a story someone is selling.

The state recognizes two grades. Not four.

Under China's national standard for disposable sanitary products, sanitary pads fall into exactly two classifications: ordinary grade (普通级) and disinfection grade (消毒级). Both are defined by the standard. Both are enforceable.

The standard in force is GB 15979-2024, Hygienic requirements for disposable sanitary products. Published June 25, 2024, in effect since July 1, 2025, replacing the 2002 version. When a pad's packaging cites GB 15979, this is the system it belongs to.

The difference between the two grades isn't vague. It's a set of numbers.

Indicator	Ordinary grade	Disinfection grade
Total bacterial count	≤ 200 CFU/g	≤ 20 CFU/g
Total fungal count	≤ 100 CFU/g	Not detectable
Coliform bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, hemolytic streptococcus	Not detectable	Not detectable
Separate disinfection step before shipment	Not required	Required, with verified efficacy
Toxicology testing	Not required	Vaginal mucosa irritation, skin sensitization, etc.

Read that table once and the price gap makes sense. Disinfection grade is ten times tighter on bacterial count. Fungi move from "a limited amount is allowed" to "none may be detected." And the work doesn't stop at the end of the line — finished goods pass through one more independent disinfection process, and that process has to be validated, not assumed.

So "disinfection grade" is not a marketing word. It is a legal classification written into a national standard. A pack that carries it is also required to print the disinfection method and the disinfection date.

One thing worth saying plainly, though: ordinary grade is not unsafe. It meets the same standard. Pathogenic bacteria must be absent there too. Disinfection grade simply draws the line higher. Which one you need depends on you.

"Medical-care grade" has left the building

Plenty of pads carried 医护级 and charged 30–50% more for it. If you still see that mark on a pack, look twice. The term has been shut down.

It started in 2018 as a voluntary certification from a third-party body, built on a group standard — not a national one. It became an e-commerce traffic magnet.

The problem was the word itself. Put "medical-care" next to "grade" and buyers hear medical device, sterile. Regulators decided the term misled people. After a transition period, from September 1, 2026, companies may no longer manufacture or ship products bearing the original 医护级 mark.

It hasn't disappeared. It was renamed: 特护产品认证, "special-care product certification." Same nature — still voluntary, still paid, still based on the same industry group standard, still issued by the same certification body, Zhongwei'an (Beijing) Certification Center. The content didn't change. They removed the character that was doing the misleading.

Hold onto that logic: this is not a national grade. It is a private certification a company chose to buy into. It may be rigorous. It may just be loud. The only way to tell is to ask which standard it tested against, and whether the test report exists.

"Medical grade sanitary pad" is not a thing

This is the one to be most careful about, and I'll be blunt: as a manufacturer, we cannot make that claim. Neither can anyone else.

In China's standards system, "medical grade" applies to products like medical underpads. Sanitary pads are not in that category. A "medical grade sanitary pad" isn't a higher tier of pad — it's a category error. Calling a pad medical grade is a violation.

So before paying extra for a grade you've never heard of, keep three things:

1. Sanitary pads have two national grades. Ordinary and disinfection. That's the list.
2. 医护级 is gone; it's now special-care product certification — a voluntary, paid, third-party certification, not a higher national grade.
3. Medical grade doesn't apply to pads. A listing that calls itself a medical grade sanitary pad is one you can scroll past.

The grade tells you one thing

A grade marks where a pack sits on hygiene safety. It does not tell you whether that pad is right for you.

How dry the topsheet feels. Whether the pad holds its shape when you move. Whether the adhesive survives a commute. None of that is in the grade. Those are construction questions, and you answer them by wearing the product, not by reading a label.

Buyers sourcing at scale run into the same split. Certificates answer "is this safe." They don't answer "will this sell." In our sanitary pads wholesale programs the grade question usually arrives in the first email, and the answer is always the same: set the grade from your market's regulatory floor and your price point, then spend the real time on topsheet, core, and fit.

If you're evaluating a sanitary pad manufacturer or planning an OEM sanitary pads line, ask for two documents — the microbiology report and the disinfection validation. A supplier who can produce both is telling you something. One who can only produce a logo is telling you something else.

Li Genyuan, Foreign Trade Manager, Guangdong Nafei Industrial Co., Ltd.