The efficacy data behind a disinfectant
Updated
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The reason "kills 99.9% of germs" is expensive: that number is a measured result from a defined test, not a description.
Three performance categories
Sanitizer, which reduces microorganisms to a level judged safe, and is the least demanding.
Disinfectant, which destroys or irreversibly inactivates specified organisms on hard surfaces.
Sterilant, which destroys all forms of microbial life including spores, and is the most demanding by a wide margin.
Each is a defined category with its own data requirements. They are not degrees of the same claim; they are different claims with different evidence behind them.
What the testing is
Standardized laboratory methods, run at a laboratory operating to the required standards, on the finished formulation as it will be sold.
Not on the active ingredient in isolation, which is the mistake makers reason their way into. A formulation containing a known biocide has not been shown to do anything until that formulation has been tested.
And run on multiple production batches, because the registration is about a product that can be made repeatedly rather than one that worked once.
Per organism, per surface, per contact time
Each organism on the label is supported by data for that organism.
Each surface type the label claims is supported separately.
And the contact time is part of the claim: the period the surface must stay visibly wet for the result to hold.
Which is why adding one more organism to a label is a data exercise rather than an editing one.
Why the contact time matters
It is the most misunderstood number on a disinfectant label, by users and by makers.
A disinfectant tested at ten minutes has not been shown to do anything at thirty seconds. Wiping a surface and drying it immediately does not deliver the claim, whatever the bottle says.
So a product with a long contact time is harder to use correctly, and a product with a short one had to earn it in the data.
It is also the strongest argument for the honest cleaning claim: physically removing soil works at the speed people actually clean, and it needs no registration.