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How To Future-Proof Cleaning Formulations

BASF offers a family of surfactants that help formulators rethink laundry and stand out on market market shelves.

September 1, 2023

BASF Care Chemicals

US consumers today face an inflationary environment, the likes of which have not been seen since the mid 1980s. With prices rising across the board, it is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to stretch their dollar and meet their household needs.

It is no surprise that the US Consumer Sentiment Index, periodically published by University of Michigan, is indicative of consumers not being confident in their financial health. With rising concerns of an upcoming recession, US consumers are also increasingly worried about their job security. An April 2023 Consumer Pulse Survey¹, conducted by McKinsey, showed that 75% of Gen Z and 63% of Millennials have some concerns of job security. In fact, a recent Deloitte survey² found that more than 50% of Millennials and Gen Z respondents reported living paycheck-to-paycheck and expected the economy to be just as harrowing in the coming year.

Amidst an environment of inflation and growing recessionary concerns, a staggering number of US consumers are trading down from premium brands to private label and value brands and focusing on ways to maximize value from every dollar that they spend. In fact, an unprecedented number of US consumers are seeking to maximize value via trade-down:¹

Share of respondents by generation (%) citing trade-down behavior:

88% of Gen Z (Aged 18-25)
88% of Millennials (Aged 26-41)
82% of Gen X (Aged 42-57)
69% of Baby Boomers (Aged 58-74)
Share of respondents by income level (%) citing trade-down behavior:
81% of Households earning <$50,000/yr
82% of Households earning $50,000-100,000/yr
76% of Households earning >$100,000/yr

Value Via Sustainability

Consumer trade-down traditionally equated to fewer purchases of sustainability-oriented consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand. However, the recently published Sustainable Market Share Index from the NYU Stern Center of Sustainable Business showed resiliency in sustainability marketed CPG brands.³ The study shared that although private label eroded market share of regional brands in 2022, the sustainable market brands were not only able to maintain their value share but were also able to capture slightly more from US consumers.

This phenomenon is further explained by another McKinsey and NielsenIQ study,⁴ published in February 2023, which examined US sales data from 2017 to June 2022. The data set covered 600,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) from 44,000 brands, delivering annual retail revenues of $400 billion across 32 food, beverage, personal care and household care categories. Their assessments clearly show clearly showed that products that made environmental, social and governance (ESG) related claims had a ~36% higher annualized retail sales growth than their conventionally marketed brands.

Does the same hold true when zooming down into the laundry care category? The short answer is yes. McKinsey and NielsenIQ4 showed that laundry care brands/SKUs with ESG-related claims had an outpaced growth vs. their conventionally-marketed brands.

If US consumers are rewarding laundry and home brands for addressing their sustainability concerns (despite the challenging macro-economic environment), what can formulators do to ensure that their brands align with consumers’ sustainability concerns?

Traditional Formulation Challenges

Historically, formulators in the cleaning industry have had various options in their toolbox to deliver sustainability needs to the consumer while maximizing performance-cost parameters. Anionic surfactants, such as fatty alcohol sulfates and fatty alcohol ether sulfates, are the primary workhorse behind many laundry and home care products. These surfactants are manufactured from either fossil-based or plant-based (primarily coconut or palm oil) sources. By incorporating plant-based fatty alcohols, a formulator can earn bio-based credentials on their anionic surfactants. These surfactants provide excellent detergency and foaming to help lift away particulate matter—like dirt, clay—from clothes or hard surfaces. These surfactants can easily be thickened with salt—improving their cost economics.

However, due to concerns of side effects from sulfates, primarily skin irritation, consumers often look to avoid cleaning products containing such ingredients. This can be challenging for formulators looking to build the next generation of cleaning products.

Meanwhile nonionic surfactants excel at emulsifying oils and perform better than anionic surfactants on removing organic soils. As with anionic surfactants, formulators can choose to source nonionic surfactants with fatty alcohols based on coconut and/or palm oil certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to acquire sustainability credentials. Additionally, through mass balance sourcing approaches, a formulator can obtain additional sustainability credentials, such as a reduction on the carbon footprint for sources of ethylene oxide.

However, in the process of ethylene oxide production, trace amounts of 1,4-dioxane and residual ethylene oxide can be present in the nonionic surfactants and ethoxylated anionics, like sodium laureth ether sulfate (SLES). With the passing of New York’s S4398B/A6295A legislation in December 2019, household cleansing and personal care products sold in New York are mandated to not exceed maximum allowable concentration of 1 ppm effective December 31, 2023. Unsurprisingly, this limits how much of ethoxylated ingredients can go into a formulation, regardless of the cleaning and sustainability benefits that they provide.

Rethinking Formulation Approaches?

Fortunately, there are many existing solutions to which formulators can turn when they are looking to deliver sustainable value to consumers. One solution is the family of alkyl polyglucosides (APGs)—milder, gentle surfactants with a great cleaning profile. APGs are manufactured by combining coconut- or palm oil-based fatty alcohols with corn-based sugars and, thus, can add sustainability credentials to cleaning formulations. APGs come in a wide variety of carbon chain length—C8 to C16—facilitating cleaning performance in various product applications.

It is due to these factors that US is seeing increasing adoption of APGs in cleaning formulations. Between 2020 and 2022, Mintel GNPD captured 174 new introductions of APG-containing formulations in the US—with hard surface cleaners leading with 73 new introductions, followed by hand dish wash at 59, and laundry detergent with 28. Mintel GNPD documented that 82% of these new launches had claims that were classified as environmentally friendly products.

Additionally, as compaction continues being a key trend to address across laundry and home care segments, it becomes increasingly important to find ingredients that are concentration friendly. APGs are generally better suited to be used as the foundational blocks for concentrated cleaning formations as they are not expected to contain 1,4 dioxane unlike ethoxylated nonionic surfactants. This is evident on the US retail shelves with several newly-launched concentrated laundry detergents containing APGs.

Functionalities of APGs

APGs offer myriad benefits in cleaning solutions. The first benefit that a formulator will see when using APGs will be the excellent foaming they provide. This is extremely useful when developing manual dish formulations, as good foam stability is a critical measure of performance for consumers. Additionally, APGs can provide synergistic foam boosting to linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) containing systems, thus ensuring that even a cost-conscious consumer will see significantly improved foaming from their value-tier brand.

Secondly, APGs can help boost soil emulsification performance of LAS. When compared against systems containing only LAS, LAS: APG systems perform significantly better in helping to keep food soils dispersed, so they are unable to redeposit on surfaces. This synergy can be leveraged in various applications, like commercial or I&I hand dish or laundry, where removal of food soils is of outmost importance. Formulators can also use LAS: APG synergies to boost detergency of cleaning formulations as they exhibit improved removal both of food and particulate soils. By virtue of being non-ionic surfactants, APGs provide comparable performance to their ethoxylated counterparts on removing organic soils and are expected not to contain 1,4 dioxane.

Furthermore, APG-containing formulations exhibit an improved dye-transfer inhibition benefit against non-APG formulations, as the APGs are considered mild surfactants and do not scavenge dyes like anionic surfactants. This makes APGs a perfect candidate to incorporate in consumer and I&I laundry applications where extending use of fabrics is desired by consumers and institutions, respectively.

In hard-surface cleaning applications, APGs can deliver a streakless clean when compared to ethoxylated non-ionic surfactants. Streakless cleaning enables a superior gloss retention and ensures that hard surfaces cleaned with APGs appear to be much cleaner. On glass surfaces, select APGs can deliver a 97% gloss retention while ethoxylated surfactants are only able to achieve 91%. APGs are a must-have ingredient to incorporate into glass and bathroom cleaners where consumers want a streakless clean every time.

Integrate mildness in every clean

It is well known that consumers tend to equate “harsh chemicals” with skin irritation. A recently released State of Skin Sensitivity report by Aveeno highlighted growing consumer concerns on skin health, with 71% of US adults identifying as having sensitive skin.⁵

Sodium laureth sulfate (SLS) and SLES, in the eyes of a layman consumer, are considered to be harsh due to their potential to cause skin irritation.⁶ These concerns led formulators to develop “sulfate-free” products in personal care markets.

With skin sensitivity top of mind for US consumers, laundry and home care brands should look at developing and launching skin-friendly laundry and home care formulations. A unique differentiator for APGs is its ability to deliver a desired clean without concerns of harshness. In a modified Duhring-Chamber test, APGs had the lowest skin irritation score when compared to LAS, secondary alkane sulfonate (SAS) and fatty alcohol ether sulphate (FAES) alone. Based on an internal study, APGs were also seen to lower the skin sensitivity of LAS, SAS and FAES, when integrated as a surfactant blend.

The mildness of APGs not only benefits consumer product formulations but can also enhance I&I cleaning outcomes. Plastics—polycarbonates (PC) and plexiglass (PMA)—can experience fissures, through cracks and fractures, when they come in repeated contact with various surfactants during cleaning. APGs demonstrate improved surface compatibility with plastics, allowing the surface to remain intact after repeated cleaning.

Formulating with APGs

To build high-performing cleaning solutions that are compliant with New York State 1,4 dioxane legislation, formulators must look to establish a foundation with APGs and other low 1,4 dioxane surfactants. Once the surfactant selection is complete, addition of non-surfactant cleaning ingredients such as enzymes and chelating agents would allow for a performance differentiation on key consumer-relevant soils. Lastly, formulators should look at topping off the solution with weight-efficient, performance-boosting polymers to achieve the desired detergency, performance, viscosity and anti-redeposition goals. There are APG solutions in the North American market that have the breadth of desired performance and C8-C16 carbon chain solutions to empower formulators to build the cleaning solution foundation with.

Click here for an example of a high-performing laundry detergent with low 1,4 dioxane-compliant concentrated formula.

Experienced ingredient suppliers can enable formulations which are lower in carbon footprint by using APGs. Additionally, by including APGs, formulators can address the skin irritation concerns of consumers. Here is an example of a premium performing hand dishwash formulation that also has lower carbon footprint than conventional formulas.

Future-Proof Your Brand

US consumers will continue seeking brands that align with their personal values. Therefore, now more than ever, it is more critical to rethink traditional ingredient and formulation approaches. The home care and I&I cleaning industry needs to evolve their brands in line with changing consumer and regulatory needs while keeping costs in mind.

With APGs, formulators have a tool to meet these market challenges head-on and keep up with changing market dynamics. By working with BASF’s vast breadth of ingredients and technical services, formulators can access the best-in-class tools to build future-proofed cleaning products.

So, what are you waiting for?

About the Author
Jatin Sharma is marketing manager home care and I&I North America. For more information about APGs and other BASF chemistry, contact [email protected]

References