Comparing Zinc Pyrithione vs. Flaxseed Oil as antibacterial agents in soap industry

[soapmaestro]

Hello everybody. I’m trying to compare bar soaps sold by two CPG companies. One of these uses ZPT as the main antibacterial ingredient while the other uses Flaxseed Oil.

I’m trying to understand how these compare in terms of:

- antibacterial efficacy
- cost (not exact numbers obv, but rough estimates on what the % difference could be)
- how would they differ in terms of other ingredients (e.g. palmate oils, lauric acid etc) that may have to change in composition depending on the main antibacterial ingredient used

I also googled how flaxseed oil works as an antibac agent, but could find nothing on the matter. How good is it as an antibac? Could it be that the manufacturing company chooses it as a low quality ingredient for cost saving?

I’ll be honest this part of my work has caught me off guard because I’m nill on the science side. Would be great if you can also share any good dummy resources to understand the main ingredients of soap formulations, and what kinds of cost and performance tradeoffs are involved in choosing one composition over the other.

Thanks!

 

[artemis]

Can I ask:
What is your soap-making background?
What kind of work do you do that has you looking into this?
What are your goals?
Knowing these things will help us to know exactly how to help you without telling you things you already know.

 

[soapmaestro]

Sure, thank you

I'm a finance professional working in a CPG company. Trying to compare the formulation of our soap with that of a competitor's and see if I can estimate the costs and performance of that soap. So that's my goal and disclaimer: I have no background in soapmaking/chemistry. Looking forward to your response!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@artemis - Well said!
@soapmaestro - Please take a moment to go to the New Member Introductions Forum to tell us about yourself... as much as you care to share.

Also, I can't speak for others, but I don't know what CPG, ZPT and PK (location) stand for??? It would be helpful to me if you could spell those out so I know what we're addressing here. TY

ETA (Edited To Add):

I have no background in soapmaking/chemistry.

I just saw this. We have members who are tops in the science of soapmaking. Hopefully, they'll wander in with their expertise to help you. I am not one of them.

One thing to be aware of -- there are 2 divisions of soap discussed here: Lye-based (true) soap which is our main focus &
Syndet (synthetic/detergent) Bars. Good to keep that in mind when asking your question.

 

[soapmaestro]

@Zany_in_CO updated my location

Sorry for being heavy on the abbreviations.

CPG company = Consumer packaged goods company
ZPT = Zinc pyrithione

Hope it helps. Posted a short sweet intro in the new members forum

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Posted a short sweet intro in the new members forum

Well done! Thank you!

While awaiting further help, you may want to browse @DeeAnna 's Soapy Stuff. It's sort of a primer for newbies and well worth your time to lay a foundation for further discussion.