Tallow ingredient pig fat?

Gents,

You probably view this as a stupid question, i know tallow consist of animal fat but i was just wanted to be certain does is it usually contains pork lard or beef and mutton are usually used? Im asking because of my religion prohibits the touching of pig. I have been using mostly tallow based soap like tabac and cella. Appreciate anybody can shed some light on this.

nom nom nom.

I think tallow is typically sheep, possibly cow based.

Common usage is- Tallow is generally from beef or sheep. Rendered Pig fat is lard. All of them can make a good soap or a tasty snack.

So there's no way distinguishing the source of animal?

Best option is to mail the manufacturer of the soaps you like.

Thanks gents

ZinZan said:

So there's no way distinguishing the source of animal?

Click to expand...

Yes tallow ( beef/sheep) generally is not lard based which is pig fat. After the soap is made there is no tallow left if that helps.

Jim said:

Yes tallow ( beef/sheep) generally is not lard based which is pig fat. After the soap is made there is no tallow left if that helps.

Click to expand...

Thanks jim that put me much at ease. Im not fanatical in avoiding but I do try my best.

In the case of Arko (and other soaps made in countries like Turkey with a large Muslim population), you can be safe in assuming the tallow is pig-free.

The term "tallow"is most often used to describe beef and mutton fat. Lard (pig fat) is not widely used in soap making these days, due to its food value in many countries. That said, you could never be sure that the tallow was not contaminated with some lard. However, as it was pointed out already, the fat is completely processed (saponified) during the making of the soap, and there is no free animal fat left.

If there is a cultural/religious objection to contact with pork products, I would endorse the idea of either contacting the soap maker directly, or sourcing products from countries with a predominantly Jewish or Muslim population.

Have you tried any Glycerin based soaps? There are some good ones out there.

Somehow or another I was under the assumption tallow was beef and mutton fat in my early research when acquiring soap a couple of years ago, I completely missed out the pork lard part. Moving forward ill will avoid tallow but I don't think ill bin my current tallow soaps. Tabac and cella are my go to soaps.

Daiku said:

In the case of Arko (and other soaps made in countries like Turkey with a large Muslim population), you can be safe in assuming the tallow is pig-free.

Click to expand...

I agree with Jim and Daiku on this. Most major manufacturers of shave soap dont use lard in their shave soap. But, artisan makers do use it in specialty soaps like bacon scented soaps. I think you will be safe on the big box soaps but be careful on the artisan sopas and always check the ingredient list first. I would like to add that while tallow and lard are converted to soap via chemical process, most artisan soap makers superfat their soaps. I hope Slice o Life weighs in to explain this better that I. Chances are that if it wasnt advertised as being made with lard, it isnt.

ZinZan said:

So there's no way distinguishing the source of animal?

Click to expand...

Stirling lists the ingredients of all its shaving soaps. I think only one is lard and one is sheep. The rest are beef tallow.

VDH deluxe says it does not use animal products or test its products on animals.

If it says tallow, especially on commercial (non-artisan) products, it should contain lard. We often see potassium tallowate, for example, which is tallow saponified with potassium hydroxide. Lard would be called potassium lardate.

Commercial concerns are generally much stricter with their labels than many laymen. From the number of times that I see the question of tallow being pig fat on soaping fori it makes me wonder how many people just don't know that tallow should never be used as a name for pig fat and if any artisans or hobby soap makers are mislabeling from this.

If in doubt, drop them an email. I wouldn't just drop all tallow soaps on the off chance when that would really be a bit of overkill.

For the record, while commercial soaps are unlikely to contain unsaponified fats, many artisan soaps will - there is a buffer zone of fats at the very least, to make sure that all of the lye is used up, which leaves free fats in the end product. If the product includes lard, they could well be unsaponified lard in the final product. As before, check with the supplier to make sure it's 100% not lard. I don't think that it would be the first time that they get asked the question

Jim said:

Yes tallow ( beef/sheep) generally is not lard based which is pig fat. After the soap is made there is no tallow left if that helps.

Click to expand...

I am a soap maker and I definitely do not agree with the statement that there would not be anything left of the tallow:

First, you make sure you have slightly more fat than what you have lye so you do not end up with a lye heavy soap. Unless excess lye was used and it is a "washed" soap (by salting out several times), there will be some unreacted fat left.

Second, only triglycerides becomes soap. Tallow also have a small amount of other kind of fats which will never become soap.

Should go well with a boar brush.