Supervision for Imported Disposable Sanitary Products in China – Wet Wipes and Hygiene Wet Wipes

Wet wipes and hygiene wet wipes are both disposable sanitary products and they are also classified as disinfection products in China. With the improvement of health and hygienic awareness of consumers in China, there is no doubt that the market of wet wipes products has huge potential. Then what are the matters that overseas enterprises need to pay attention to when they intend to export their wet wipes products to China? CIRS is willing to share with you the following information.

1. Import Inspection and Supervision Requirements

1.1 Enterprises need to submit the toxicological test report, which shall be issued by the CNAS qualified laboratory, to the local inspection and quarantine institution when they apply for import inspection declaration for the imported wet wipes and hygiene wet wipes. Please see the specific test items in the following Table 1:

Table 1: Toxicological test items

1.2 Other hygienic indexes except the toxicological index (such as total number of bacterial colonies, total number of fungal colonies, coliform bacteria and pathogenic purulent bacteria) shall also be tested in accordance with the Hygienic Standards for Disposable Sanitary Products (GB 15979-2002). Products failing the tests must be returned or destroyed.

1.3 When importing the wet wipes and hygiene wet wipes, enterprises must paste a Chinese label in the sales package of the products in accordance with the requirements of GB15979 and relevant laws and regulations, for imported products can only be put in Chinese market after they attach a compliant Chinese label.

1.4 If the products are shoddy, for instance, packages of the products are damaged; or the products are in poor sanitation; or overdue; or in bad quality, they will be returned or destroyed by the inspection and quarantine department.

2 How to Comply with the Chinese Regulations after the Wet Wipes and Hygiene Wet Wipes are Imported into China

2.1 Major inspection items for wet wipes

After the wet wipes pass the customs clearance and are put into the Chinese market, the local quality and technology supervision departments or the health supervision bureaus will carry out regular or irregular inspections for the wet wipes within their administrative regions. Substandard products will be notified to the public online. The major inspection items are as follows: total number of bacteria colonies, coliform bacteria, pathogenic purulent bacteria (pseudomonas aeruginosa, staphylococcus aureus and hemolytic streptococcus), total number of fungal colonies, liquid content, transverse tensile strength, packing and sealing performance, pH value and portable fluorescent whitening agent (11 test items in total) (in accordance with the requirements of GB 15979-2002 Hygienic Standards for Disposable Sanitary Products ,GB/T 27728-2011 Wet Wipes and other standards.)

2.2 Regulatory compliance requirements for hygiene wet wipes

In September 2017, National Health and Family Planning Commission of the P.R.C (now for the National Health Commission of the P.R.C) issued a mandatory hygiene standard – WS 575-2017 Hygiene Requirements for Wet Wipes. It is the first time China has released a hygiene standard concerning hygiene wet wipes. This standard has been implemented from 1 Mar. 2018. That is to say, after exporting hygiene wet wipes to China, overseas enterprises shall not only fulfill the toxicological requirements listed in the GB 15979-2002 Hygienic Standards for Disposable Sanitary Products concerning the import declaration, but also shall fulfill the toxicological safety requirements listed in the WS 575-2017 Hygiene Requirements for Wet Wipes after entering China market. CIRS warmly suggests that enterprises should better comply with both of the two requirements when they conduct the toxicological tests, and do the compliance sale. Please see the specific toxicological safety indexes listed in the WS 575-2017 in table 2

Table 2 The requirement of toxicological safety indexes

Besides, the WS 575-2017 has specific requirements on the contents of the active ingredients, pH value, stability, metal corrosion and other indexes of the hygiene wet wipes. It is suggested that enterprises involved hygiene wet wipes shall learn more about this standard. Take the requirements on the active ingredient limit as an example. See the requirements on hand, skin and mucous membrane in the following Table 3.

Table 3 Requirements on the Active Ingredient Limit of Hygiene Wet Wipes applied on Hand, Skin and Mucous Membrane

Object	Chlorhexidine Gluconate, Chlorhexidine Acetate (g/L)	5-Chloro-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol (g/L)	Benzalkonium Bromide, Benzalkonium Chloride (g/L)	Other restricted substances required by the state
Hand, skin	≤45.0	≤20.0	≤5.0	Compliance
Mucous membrane	≤5.0	≤3.5	≤2.0	Compliance

After the hygiene wet wipes pass the customs clearance and are put into the Chinese market, the quality and technology supervision departments or the health supervision bureaus will carry out regular or irregular inspection, for the hygiene wet wipes within their administrative regions. Substandard products will be notified to the public online. The major inspection items are as follows: total number of bacteria colonies, coliform bacteria, pathogenic purulent bacteria (pseudomonas aeruginosa, staphylococcus aureus and hemolytic streptococcus), total number of fungal colonies, liquid content, contents of active ingredient, pH value, packing and sealing performance, ,microbes killing index and etc. (in accordance with the requirements of GB 15979-2002 Hygienic Standards for Disposable Sanitary Products, GB 575-2017 Hygiene Requirements for Wet Wipes and other standards).

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