glycerin not vegetarian??

[PassThePickles]

recently i've come across a few different articles saying that glycerin has animal products in it. i'm avoiding it till i find out just to make sure but does anybody know anything bout this??

[kpickell]

It can be animal derived, vegetable derived or synthetic. I guess you won't know unless the company happens to know, but even then they probably switch distributors at whim.

[soilman]

Overall production: fats used are about 50/50 animal to vegetables.

Old standard method: Fats + alkalai = soap + glycerin
Modern soap production: fats "hydrolized" into fatty acids and glycerin. The fatty acids treated with alkalai to create soap.

Details: http://www.materials.addr.com/soap3.html

[Coop]

Most glycerine I've seen for sale is specifically labeled "Vegetable glycerine". When buying glycerine I always make sure to buy from a reputable source that specifically says vegetabale glycerine. I've never seen animal-based glycerine sold, but I have seen synthetic. I'm sure it exists though.

Soilman - that's a really neat site you've posted! As a "from scratch" soapcrafter I found it to be fascinating and as far as I know it looks accurate. Modern handcrafted soap is really pretty nice stuff, thanks to the incredible variety of vegetable and nut oils and butters that are now available. We're not limited to olive, coconut and palm oils anymore! Each oil or fat does something different in the soap, and I really love experimenting with them to find just the perfect balance. (And of course all the lovely glycerine is left in the bars where it can do your skin some good. *grin*)

"Soap" you buy at the store may or may not even be really soap, and the FDA doesn't regulate soap so that means the ingredients never have to be listed. According to the FDA, as long as "the majority" of the ingredients are saponified fatty acids, it's soap. That means I could make soap that's 49% cat food and I still don't have to label the ingredients as long as I say it's "soap". Incredible, huh? (That'd be some pretty nasty soap, LOL) If ingredients *are* listed, look for tallow listed as "Sodium Tallowate".