Saturday, October 16

Black Market Dishwashing Soap?

Phosphate MoleculeIt's more likely than you may think.

Don't be surprised if you haven't heard about this - it's not widely known. But I'm sure dishwasher manufacturers have noticed an uptick in sales.

Why? Because folks' dishwashers aren't working as they once did. One such owner in Lancaster County, PA, found out the hard way, after shelling out $759 for a new dishwasher. After seeing that her dishes were still not coming out clean, she learned that the dishwasher soap manufacturer had changed the formula.

Cue the similarly-sounding commercial from the '70s that said "Let's remove the ingredient from the dishwashing soap that actually cleans the dishes and see if anyone notices."

Well, folks, even we noticed, and I bet you have, too. Take a gander at the box of Cascade under your sink and see that it, too, says "Phosphate Free." Due to a ban on phosphates last year, phosphate-laden soaps of all kinds cannot be purchased anywhere. In the United States, anyway.

Even the manufacturer's website explains what the new formula contains - or does not contain:

Phosphate is the main ingredient in most automatic dishwashing detergents and serves many functions. For example, phosphate helps with dishwashing performance by facilitating food removal, removing the calcium that binds these types of foods together and reducing spotting and filming during the wash cycle. Phosphate also aids in grease removal, helps control water hardness, and suspends soils within the wash water so they are not redistributed onto plates.

So... what can the consumer do? Adding back the phosphate is one idea, provided you can actually find the stuff. TSP (tri-sodium phosphate), sold for decades at hardware and home improvement stores is itself sold as "phosphate-free" in some locales, which I suppose turns it into, well, TS.

Tough sh!t?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

One may want to read, "Big Brother's in Your Dishwasher Too" at this link:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/10/big_brothers_in_your_dishwashe.html

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