Research to Help Better Remove Baked-on, Stuck-on Food Soils Honored by American Cleaning Institute

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Brian Sansoni, American Cleaning Institute, 202.662.2517 or [email protected]

Research to Help Better Remove Baked-on, Stuck-on Food Soils Honored by American Cleaning Institute

ACI Distinguished Paper Award Presented at Annual Meeting of American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS)

Research Recognized as Best 2015 Paper in Journal of Surfactants & Detergents

Newswise — Washington, DC, May 3, 2016 – Everyone knows that those roasted, baked-on, stuck-on foods can often be a nightmare for dishwashers to effectively clean.

Research that can help detergent manufacturers better figure out how to clean that food residue on dishes has been honored with the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) Distinguished Paper Award. The annual honor recognizes the most outstanding research to appear in 2015 in the Journal of Surfactants and Detergents.

One of the biggest challenges for domestic and commercial dishwashers and detergents is how to remove the tough, hydrophobic (water-hating) soil layers generated by the roasting, baking or burning of food oils and fats.

Researchers Akin Ali, Zayeed Alam, Glenn Ward, and D. Ian Wilson used a new technique – called fluid dynamic gauging – that can help replicate different cleaning scenarios in the lab, giving detergent makers better means of testing different formulas for cleaning those baked on, burnt and roasted food deposits on dishware. The paper outlines an approach to detergent design based on better understanding chemical and fluid flow interactions.

“This allows lots of information to be generated from one test compared to traditional methods, improving the efficiency of research and accelerating development,” said Dr. Wilson, who is based at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. “Detergent manufacturers can benefit from understanding whether or not a surfactant, the workhorse detergent ingredient, promotes cohesive breakdown of a soil or the soil peeling off.”

The paper, “Using the Scanning Fluid Dynamic Gauging Device to Understand the Cleaning of Baked Lard Soiling Layers,” appeared in the Journal of Surfactants and Detergents, November 2015, Volume 18, Issue 6, (pp 933-947).

Lead author Akin Ali, also based at Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, conducted this research on a government PhD studentship (from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) supported by Procter & Gamble (UK).

Researchers Zayeed Alam and Glenn Ward are based at Procter & Gamble’s Newcastle Technical Centre in the United Kingdom.

ACI’s Distinguished Paper Award is presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Oil Chemists’ Society, during a luncheon of the group’s Surfactants and Detergents Division.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For specific questions about the research, please contact Dr. D. Ian Wilson at [email protected].

The American Cleaning Institute® (ACI) is the Home of the U.S. Cleaning Products Industry® and represents the $30 billion U.S. cleaning products market. ACI members include the formulators of soaps, detergents, and general cleaning products used in household, commercial, industrial and institutional settings; companies that supply ingredients and finished packaging for these products; and oleochemical producers. ACI (www.cleaninginstitute.org) and its members are dedicated to improving health and the quality of life through sustainable cleaning products and practices.