(Marseille) The Fer à Cheval soap factory, the oldest soap factory in Marseille, will gradually abandon coconut oil to produce 100% olive oil soaps, a “return to basics” for the company as a means of reducing its carbon footprint.
Authentic Marseille soap cube is supposed to be cooked in a cauldron and contain only four ingredients: 72% vegetable oils, soda, sea salt and water. “Only pure olive oils, and without a mixture of fat, under penalty of confiscation of the goods”, specified Colbert’s edict for soap factories in 1688.
Except that since the end of the 18th centurye century and the arrival of exotic oils in the port of the second largest city in France, soap makers began to use coconut oil (made from coconut but without the smell) or coconut oil. palm in order to “make the soaps better and solidify the soaps more easily”, explained Stéphanie Guilbaud, the marketing director of Savonnerie Fer à cheval at a press conference Thursday.
By 2022, the brand will therefore switch to 100% olive all the products of its main range based on olive oil (those of green color) which still contained a part of copra oil, i.e. 90 tonnes of olive oil. less exotic oils imported per year.
This is a “return to basics” as a way of reducing your CO emissions.2, by sourcing olive-pomace oils from Spain, Morocco or Italy, explained Mr.me Guilbaud.
PHOTO CHRISTOPHE SIMON, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
This passage in 100% olive oil is a first among the last four soap factories in Marseille and Salon-de-Provence which still manufacture in a cauldron according to the ancestral process.
Olive-pomace oil is a by-product of olive oil available only from large olive growers, and therefore not in France, explained Mario Pontarollo, commercial director of the New Detergents and Soap Company. Marseille, owner of Fer à Cheval, a soap factory founded in 1856 in the northern districts and today labeled Living Heritage Company.
The soap factory will however continue to use coconut or palm oils in its other ranges (beige soaps), which represent less than 20% of its sales.
This switch to 100% olive oil is a first among the last four soap factories in Marseille and Salon-de-Provence, which still manufacture in a cauldron according to the ancestral process, says the company.
On the verge of liquidation in 2013, the Nouvelle Compagnie des Detergents et du Soap de Marseille achieved a turnover of 7.8 million euros in 2020 and now employs 40 people for an annual production of 1,200 tonnes, including one. million olive oil soaps.
Marseille soap has still not obtained the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) due to disputes in the profession around specifications. The purists exclude any addition of perfume and require cooking in a cauldron, which is disputed by other producers.