Fatty matter

[meena.shah]

Can anyone please tell me how to find the fatty matter of the soaps and if I want beyond 80%what should I do?

 

[lenarenee]

I’m not sure what you’re asking. Do you need the fatty acid profiles of an oil ( oleic, lauric, myistic). or are you asking about the ‘super fat’ level in a recipe (the amount of extra oil in a recipe that will not be saponified)?

 

[GemstonePony]

I'm as confused as lenarenee about what you're using "fatty matter" to refer to. Fatty acid profiles? Superfat? Unsaponifiables?
And what are you trying to make or locate 80% of it in? Soap from you? Soap from someone else? Soap that a recipe would make?

 

[DeeAnna]

Total fatty matter is a measure of how much fatty acid is in a particular soap. It's a rough measure of the amount of pure soap in the product. TFM is measured by a chemical test where the soap is decomposed with acid and the fatty acids are recovered and weighed.

I suppose you can estimate it by calculating the approximate weight of fatty acids for your recipe, but that's not going to be as accurate as the chemical test. An estimate will also probably not be acceptable if you are required to provide documentation to buyers about the properties of your soap.

To increase TFM, reduce the water content and any non-soap fillers and other additives, including fragrance and colorant. In other words, reduce or eliminate anything that's not actual pure soap.

If you are producing handmade soap with a cold process or hot process method, I suspect you may find it unrealistic to increase the TFM to 80% or higher and still have a handmade soap with a nice scent and appearance. In a cured soap, glycerin is about 8-10% of the total weight and water is roughly 5-10% of the total weight. With a TFM of 80% or more, there is not much room for fragrance, colorant, etc.

 

[lenarenee]

DeeAnna, what is the purpose of TFM? Something used in manufacturing or India has regulations pertaining to handmade soap?

 

[GemstonePony]

Oh, that must be why I haven't run across it. TFM seems to be a commercial reference point for how much of any soap mixture is soap. Brief Google search claims it's the best way to know quality soap, but that must not be in regard to skincare since it does not take the type of fatty acid salt into consideration and you can't get the "high quality" percentages without milling/processing soap in a laboratory environment.

 

[DeeAnna]

Yes, it's more used in industrial soap making, not handcrafted soap making. If if you were a small scale producer using soap noodles made by someone else, you'd want to spend your money on noodles that are SOAP, not noodles that are loaded up with cheap fillers.

I have no idea about what the regs are -- I just know a little about the test and roughly what it means.

 

[meena.shah]

I'm as confused as lenarenee about what you're using "fatty matter" to refer to. Fatty acid profiles? Superfat? Unsaponifiables?
And what are you trying to make or locate 80% of it in? Soap from you? Soap from someone else? Soap that a recipe would make?

Thank you

 

[meena.shah]

Yes, it's more used in industrial soap making, not handcrafted soap making. If if you were a small scale producer using soap noodles made by someone else, you'd want to spend your money on noodles that are SOAP, not noodles that are loaded up with cheap fillers.

I have no idea about what the regs are -- I just know a little about the test and roughly what it means.
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[meena.shah]

I am making cp soap I thought we should have our fatty matters measured so I posted thank you for your information.

 

[meena.shah]

DeeAnna, what is the purpose of TFM? Something used in manufacturing or India has regulations pertaining to handmade soap?

 

[meena.shah]

No we don’t have any such regulation but I had read somewhere so l though we need to know how much fatty matters our soaps should have. Thank you

 

[meena.shah]

Total fatty matter is a measure of how much fatty acid is in a particular soap. It's a rough measure of the amount of pure soap in the product. TFM is measured by a chemical test where the soap is decomposed with acid and the fatty acids are recovered and weighed.

I suppose you can estimate it by calculating the approximate weight of fatty acids for your recipe, but that's not going to be as accurate as the chemical test. An estimate will also probably not be acceptable if you are required to provide documentation to buyers about the properties of your soap.

To increase TFM, reduce the water content and any non-soap fillers and other additives, including fragrance and colorant. In other words, reduce or eliminate anything that's not actual pure soap.

If you are producing handmade soap with a cold process or hot process method, I suspect you may find it unrealistic to increase the TFM to 80% or higher and still have a handmade soap with a nice scent and appearance. In a cured soap, glycerin is about 8-10% of the total weight and water is roughly 5-10% of the total weight. With a TFM of 80% or more, there is not much room for fragrance, colorant, etc.

Thanks for the information.

 

[lenarenee]

No we don’t have any such regulation but I had read somewhere so l though we need to know how much fatty matters our soaps should have. Thank you

To make sure you understand, you don't need to know the total fatty acid amount in order to make good, safe soap at home, or for a hobby.

 

[DeeAnna]

I agree with you, @lenarenee.

I've never heard any of the soap makers here say anything about needing to know the TFM of their soap. I get the feeling it's not all that critical to know, unless you're a large-scale manufacturer selling to other manufacturers.

 

[lenarenee]

I agree with you, @lenarenee.

I've never heard any of the soap makers here say anything about needing to know the TFM of their soap. I get the feeling it's not all that critical to know, unless you're a large-scale manufacturer selling to other manufacturers.

Part of my confidence in posting that was because I knew if TFM mattered, you would have told us by now!!!