It is introduced in India in 1985 when the country was facing an acute scarcity of vegetable cooking oils. Much of the vegetable oils were being used by industry. The government started importing palm oil from abroad. To control the use of vegetable oils for soap making, the government allowed the manufacturers of soap to introduce bathing bars. The introduction of bathing bars reduced the use of cooking oils for soap making. Thus more cooking oil became available for domestic use. The prices of bathing bars were determined according to the total fatty matter contained in them and more importantly, the type of fatty matter used. Due to this step government could reduce the quantum of import of vegetable oil and could save a lot of foreign exchange.
Types of Bathing Bars
There are two types of bathing bars (1) made up of partial soap and partial synthetic detergent. (2) Made up of wholly synthetic detergent (syndet). The first type is usually known as combination bars or combars. These contain 50 percent TFM and 30-35 percent mineral matter like talc and Kaolin. They have simply structured toilet soaps. A combination soap base is made using a combination of different types of cleansers, surfactants, saponified oils designed to maximize cleaning while minimizing irritation. These combo soap bars are commonly combinations of traditional vegetable soap and syndet bar base. By formulating in this way Combination bars are less irritating than traditional Vegetable soaps but less mild than syndet bars; a balance of the two.
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