Soaps From Beef Tallow

Soap is made when natural fats and oils are boiled with sodium hydroxide which is a strong corrosive alkali. Sodium stearte is the most common ingredient in bars of soaps and other soap based cleaing products. Sodium and potassium tallowate are also common ingredients of soap. They are produced from beef, or sometimes lamb fat. There is currently no vegetable source of tallowates, but it is possible to obtain stearates from non-animal sources.

Since the mad cow disease, the regulation required beef tallow to be processed at extreme conditions using sodium hydroxide. During the process, a high temperature must be used for at least 3 hours, to ensure all microbes or protein contaminating the tallow are completely destroyed. Additionally, cosmetics and toiletries must not contain any part of the skull, brain, eyes, tonsils or spinal cord of cows, sheep or goats aged 12 months or more, or the spleens of year old sheep or goats. This age limit is reduced if the animals permanent incisor teeth have errupted through their gums.