Dr Straetmans to introduce palm oil free emulsifier

The Germany-based company, which has had a focus on cosmetic ingredients from sustainable resources for more than two decades, has established production of the widely used glyceryl stearate citrate based on palm oil free starting materials.

Versatile and stable​

Dr Fernando Ibarra, head of technical marketing and sales at Dr Straetmans explained that the company’s Dermofeel anionic emulsifier is versatile for producing many different viscosities with many different emollients and shows a good stability against electrolytes or surfactants that often cause instabilities in the production of emulsions.

“The significance of our new grade is that for many years there has been growing concern regarding the destruction of native rain forests to satisfy the demand for natural ingredients in various industries,​”​ he told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com.

“One of them is the cosmetic industry, where many raw materials are based on palm oil. The raw material suppliers, including ourselves, cannot easily switch to other sources and therefore many joined organisations like the RSPO that guarantee a sustainable production of palm oil derivatives without negative impact on native rain forests.​”​

Completely avoid the use of palm oil​

However with the switch to another vegetable source as a starting material Dr Straetmans want to go one step further and completely avoid the use of palm oil altogether in the production of Dermofeel.

“Furthermore we reduce the transportation of raw materials, because palm oil is imported from tropical countries, mainly south-east Asia and shipped to Europe for further production. We use local sources of vegetable oils for the production that is located nearby in northern Europe,​”​ Ibarra added.

Glyceryl stearate citrate a plant-based emulsifier that is well known in the industry and used in large amounts around the world.

However, according to Dr Straetmans, all current qualities are based on palm oil as a source for the base materials in the production of this emulsifier.

Ibarra explained that Dermofeel does not use any palm oil based starting materials. He stated that it has all the benefits of conventional materials, but the ongoing criticism of emulsifiers that use palm oil not being sustainable, can be avoided with this ingredient.

“This is certainly a good step forward in sustainable production of regrowing materials and local production of raw materials,​” ​claimed Ibarra.

The emulsifier will be launched at in-cosmetics, chosen because Dr Straetmans has a global sales network and considers the in-Cosmetics in Europe as the leading show for cosmetic raw materials world wide. It has also been the platform of choice for previous launches.