La standard NF EN 14885 defines according to use the European standards that a product must meet to be able to claim a microbicidal activity either:
- Activity bactéricide : Ability of a product to reduce the number of viable bacterial cells, including the activity tuberculicide The ability of a product to reduce the number of viable cells in the body. Mycobacterium terrae.
- Mycobactericidal activity : the ability of a product to reduce the number of viable bacterial endospores.
- Activity virucide : ability of a product to reduce the number of viral particles infectious.
Phase 1 basic standards demonstrate the existence of an activity under the most favourable conditions for the product.
The phase 2 application standards try to reproduce for each use conditions close to the real conditions.s of use. Interfering substances can be used to simulate dirty conditions. In Phase 2, Step 1 corresponds to in vitro application standards and Step 2 corresponds to application standards that model a use.