Milk soap diseases?

[Bree]

When selling/buying/making a cold process goat milk soap, how does the saponification process work for killing germs and making the soap safe to use?
If the goat had something wrong with it that you could get through drinking* their milk, does the saponification process kill whatever the germs/disease was and make it safe to use as soap during the cold process method? NOT melt and pour. Specifically cold process.

Thanks!

 

[paradisi]

The lye kills the pathogens.

If you're using raw milk, it would be smart to wear gloves when handling it or at very least, wash thoroughly after.

 

[DeeAnna]

Bear in mind that any advice you see here has NOT been properly tested and reviewed to be accurate. There are no guarantees that our advice is 100% sound and correct.

And another thing -- you haven't disclosed the specific disease you're talking about, so we don't have information that could make a big difference in the advice given.

If you're talking about mastitis, I'd expect proper pasteurization will kill the disease organisms. So exposure to concentrated alkali and the heat of saponification will go a long way to sanitizing the milk used to make the soap. Even so, I'd reserve the soap for personal use only -- no selling or giving this soap to the unsuspecting public.

If you do make soap with this milk, I agree with Paradisi that the concentrated alkali helps to kill pathogens.

I'd also ensure the soap gets warm enough during saponification to reach full gel temperature -- don't do the "pop it into the freezer or fridge" method that some people use.

If you're talking about a highly contagious or risky disease, don't be "penny wise and pound foolish" here. The cost of losing a gallon or three of milk is nothing compared to the risk of transmitting serious disease. Be wise and discard the milk appropriately.