Soap is one of those consumables where fat is a good thing. The greater the amount of TFM (total fatty matter) in a soap, the better it can cleanse, says Anindo Samajpati, Vice-President (Marketing) and Category Head (Soaps), Godrej Consumer Products.
The Bureau of Indian Standards has established grades of soap based on TFM. Those in which TFM accounts for 76 per cent and more are Grade 1 soaps, between 70 and 76 per cent, Grade 2 and 60-70 per cent, Grade 3. This is one of the pieces of information that the wrapper has to carry, says Samajpati.
A soap that does not contain much TFM tends to get mushy and will be consumed faster. (And I have used a soap which stopped lathering after a while and never went out of shape – I had to throw it away even though it did not wear out, but it became drier and did not make me feel fresher.) So do cream soaps have high levels of TFM? No, says Samajpati. In some well-known moisturising soaps, the TFM is quite low but there may be moisturising ingredients, and the soap may not do a good job of cleaning, he elaborates.
TFM is also a matter of cost for manufacturers, and some of them use fillers, inert substances, to add to the weight of the soap. Without them, the soap would look small. Fillers usually do no affect users but if they are made of chemicals such as asbestos, they could cause allergies, he says.
Another benefit of soaps high in TFM is that they are better vehicles for fragrance. Its intensity is higher in such soaps, says Samajpati.
The other issue to be aware of when choosing a soap is its heritage, he says. Look for a trusted and proven brand. Regulations keep getting revised, becoming stricter over the years, and the soap should have stood the test of time without giving its users any trouble. While the use of liquid soaps is a fairly recent and urban phenomenon, it is good to go with a trusted and established brand, he says.
And do not forget to check the expiry dates.
Vitamin C is a weekly dose of consumer empowerment.