Food safe surfactant

[Tri2Cook]

I'm looking for something that will eliminate/greatly reduce the surface tension of liquid (water) like borax but it has to be food safe and food friendly (meaning it can't taste bad, completely neutral would be ideal). Does anyone know of something or have suggestions I could try?

Edited May 7, 2008 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Ok, gotta tell us why. I think better with more information.

[Kerry Beal]

Here is a commercial one.

Lecithin is a surfactant, as are bile salts (not sure if they are flavourless).

[Peter the eater]

I saw a lady selling homemade organic soap at the exhibition a few years ago. To demonstrate the safety of the product she would put a few flakes in her mouth and make a "yummy" smile.

Edible soap might work.

[Dave the Cook]

Quillaia foams -- is that a drawback? It's amusing that it's called a "natural" soap, since my first thought on seeing this topic was "well, it might not be what he's after, but detergent would work . . . "

Many emulsifiers can be used as surfactants, as can glycerin and alcohol.

[Tri2Cook]

Lecithin, glycerine and alcohol I have. I'll see what I can do with those for now. Thanks for the help!

[ray goud]

If you can find it, Kodak Photo Flo may work. When I was home-developing pictures I tasted it, but yoiu should ask for a MSDS (material safety data sheet) if you want to try eating it. All it did was reduce surface tension, and it didn't taste bad. But I didn't drink it.

Ray

[Smithy]

If you can find it, Kodak Photo Flo may work. When I was home-developing pictures I tasted it, but yoiu should ask for a MSDS (material safety data sheet) if you want to try eating it. All it did was reduce surface tension, and it didn't taste bad. But I didn't drink it.

Ray

←

Hmm, I think you should look elsewhere for a food-safe ingredient. Photo-Flo (600 or 200) might not do much damage in the concentrations you're talking about, but the main surfactant is listed as an eye irritant, inhalation irritant, and possibly harmful if swallowed. In addition, Photo-Flo 600 contains ethylene glycol, which is definitely toxic. Photo-Flo 200 contains propylene glycol, which is a common food additive, but still....

If alcohols will help break the surface tension, what about adding a high-proof spirit?

[Tri2Cook]

Yeah, I definitely appreciate the suggestion but I wasn't considering trying photo flo. I'm not the sort to start up a protest over some trans fat or run the other way because there's methyltransglulecigeenanate in the main course but for some reason photo flo sounds like a scary option. There are a lot of food additives (and natural food substances) that are potential eye or inhalation irritants and some are even potentially harmful if swallowed in sufficient quantity but they're still marketed for food use... I'm pretty sure photo flo isn't. I'm waiting on a couple of other things I need then I'll give these ideas a try and let you all know how it goes. Thanks everybody.

[isomer]

Better late than never, I suppose.

After a bit of net searching, I found Quillaja, manufactured by Garuda International. Quoting from their site:

Quillaja (quillaia) is a natural GRAS (generally recognized as safe) food-grade surfactant ingredient (raw material) rich in saponins and sapogenins. Quillaja extract powder raw material can be used to formulate liquid soaps without artificial saponification of fats or vegetable oils, the method used even to prepare what are often called "Natural" soaps. Quillaia is a natural soap-like ingredient by its very nature. Quillaja raw material can be used anywhere a non-ionic surfactant can be used. Quillaia raw material has been used for decades as an ingredient to create the foaming in beverages such as root beer, low-alcohol beers and foaming carbonated beverages.

[gfweb]

polyoxyethylenesorbitanmonoleate an emulsifyier found in a lot of foods IIRC

[Tri2Cook]

Thanks for the additional information. I haven't forgotten this, I just haven't had a lot of time to play with it lately.