Sanitary Pad Test Reports: What the Factory Hands Over

The pack, in one table

Buyers ask "can you send your test reports" and receive a folder of unrelated certificates. This page lists what a sanitary pad factory can actually hand over, grouped by what each document proves, so you can tell a complete pack from a decorative one.

Group	Document	What it proves	Limits
Batch release	Microbiology report per lot (GB 15979-2002)	That lot met the hygiene limits for its grade	Only the lot sampled
Batch release	Physical performance report (GB/T 8939)	Absorbency, rewet, pH and strength against the declared spec	Test conditions must be stated
Material	Topsheet and adhesive declarations	What the skin-contact layers are made of	Supplier-declared unless third-party tested
Skin contact	Human patch test report	Whether the tested materials caused irritation or sensitisation in the panel	Cannot guarantee no reaction in any individual
System	Factory audit and management-system certificates	That a process was audited to a published standard	Scope and validity dates decide the value
Traceability	Material lot linkage and retained samples	That the pads you received match what was tested	Requires you to keep your own retained sample

Everything below explains how to read those six rows, and where the honest limits sit.

Batch test reports: read the load, not the verdict

An absorbency number without its test load means nothing. A pad rated at 20 ml and a pad rated at 80 ml are not comparable, and a supplier quoting only one figure is choosing the flattering one. When a report reaches you, confirm four inputs before you read any result: the product version tested, the liquid used, the load applied, and the pressure used for rewet.

The product version matters most, because it is where substitution happens. If the report was issued against a 240 mm version with a particular SAP loading, and your order is a 285 mm version with a different core, the report does not cover your order. Ask for the report to name the version, the material codes and the production date range it applies to. A report that names none of these covers nothing in particular.

Rewet is the number buyers under-use. Absorbency tells you the pad can take liquid; rewet tells you whether that liquid comes back against skin under body pressure. For night products and for anything marketed on dryness, rewet under load is the more honest figure, and it is the one suppliers quote least often.

Microbiology under GB 15979-2002

China's hygiene standard for disposable sanitary products sets the microbial limits a lot must meet. For the women's menstrual hygiene category, the ordinary grade caps total bacterial count at 200 cfu/g and total fungal count at 100 cfu/g. Coliforms and the named pathogens — Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and haemolytic streptococcus — must not be detected at all. The disinfection grade tightens those ceilings further.

Two things are worth knowing when you read such a report. First, "not detected" is a statement about the sample and the method's detection limit, not a mathematical zero. Second, a report with no lot number, no sampling date and no method reference is a template, not a result. A usable microbiology report identifies the lot, the sampling point in production, the incubation conditions and the laboratory that ran it.

Physical performance under GB/T 8939

The product standard covers the measurable behaviour of the pad as an article: length and width tolerance, absorbency, rewet, pH of the aqueous extract, and strip strength. pH deserves a note of its own. Skin sits near pH 4.5 to 5.5, and a pad whose extract drifts alkaline is a plausible irritation source that no amount of "soft cotton" wording will fix. If a buyer is evaluating comfort complaints, pH belongs in the first round of questions, not the third.

Skin compatibility: what patch testing proves, and what it does not

Human patch testing applies the material to intact skin under occlusion, removes it at set intervals, and scores the site for erythema and oedema. Standard readings are taken at 24, 48 and 72 hours. What the report establishes is narrow and useful: under those conditions, in that panel, the material did not produce a primary irritation or a sensitisation response above the scoring threshold.

What it does not establish is that nobody will react. No patch test can promise that, because contact reactions depend on the individual, on duration of wear, on occlusion from clothing, and on what else is on the skin. This is worth stating plainly, because the category is full of suppliers who imply otherwise.

A report you can actually use names the panel size, the materials tested, the occlusion method, the reading intervals and the per-subject scores. A document that says only "passed" or "hypoallergenic, certified" is a marketing page with a header, not a test report. If a supplier cannot tell you which materials were on the skin — topsheet, backsheet adhesive, wing adhesive — the test was not designed to answer your question.

Nafei runs patch testing on the skin-contact materials of its sanitary pad and period pants ranges, and the report is part of the supplier pack rather than a claim on a brochure. Ask for the material list first; the panel data second.

Certificates: scope beats the logo

A certificate is only as useful as its scope statement. Three fields decide whether it applies to your order: the certified entity and site, the product or process scope in the certificate text, and the validity window. A group-level certificate that names a different production site does not cover the factory that will ship your cartons.

Management-system certificates tell you a process was audited on a cycle; they do not tell you a specific batch was good. Product test reports tell you a batch was good; they do not tell you the process is stable. Buyers who want both should ask for both, and should ask what happened in the last audit where a non-conformity was raised, because that answer separates a maintained system from a framed document.

If your market needs medical-device-adjacent supply chain evidence, ask the supplier whether their system is certified to ISO 13485 and read the scope. Do not accept a logo. A certificate number you cannot look up on the issuing body's register is worth ignoring.

What will not be in the pack

Some documents buyers ask for do not exist, and a supplier who produces them is telling you something about how they sell.

• "Hypoallergenic certification." There is no single certification behind that word. What exists is patch test data on named materials, and material declarations. Judge the underlying evidence, not the adjective.
• "Medical grade." For menstrual pads this is a marketing phrase, not a grade defined by any standard you can audit against.
• FDA approval for a sanitary pad. In the United States, menstrual pads are Class I devices exempt from premarket notification. There is no FDA approval letter to send, and a supplier who claims one is describing a document that does not exist.
• A guarantee that the product is sterile. These are hygiene products, not sterile devices. Microbiology limits are the correct frame; sterility is a different claim with a different process behind it.
• "100% leak-proof." No test protocol in this category produces that result. What a report can show is performance under defined load and time.

We list these because a buyer who knows what cannot exist can screen suppliers in one email, and because the fastest way to lose a serious importer is to answer a document request with a slogan.

How to request the pack

Send the product version, target market, order quantity and the market's document requirements. You will get the batch report set, the material declarations, the patch test report and the factory certificates relevant to that version, with the scope and validity dates visible rather than cropped out. If a requested document does not exist for your market, the reply will say so and explain what does.

For the testing method itself — how load, pressure and sample version change a result — see how sanitary pads are tested. For the national product standard in detail, read what GB/T 8939 actually tests. For checking a certificate against the issuing body's register, use the certificate verification workflow. For the in-line inspection points behind these reports, see sanitary pad quality control.