Everyday Ethanol (The Corn in Everything)

We use consumer-packaged goods morning, noon and night. Whether it’s squeezing toothpaste in the AM, washing down lunch with a diet cola, or scrubbing in a facial cleaner before bed, the “CPG” ecosystem of bottled, canned, and bagged products are ingrained in our daily lives without much thought. But what do we know about our plastically-captive companions? How many of them depend on our global supply of crops?

Through our work at TellusLabs, we’ve learned a great deal as we’ve been interacting more and more with the producers of consumer goods. They’ve shown us just how important agriculture is to their bottom line.

We already knew that Fritos are made from corn and Lays from potatoes, but we didn’t know how much of our mouthwash is made up of sorbitol & ethanol (highly corn-based products). We’ve learned a lot about how plant-based derivatives and compounds go into our soaps, our laundry detergents, air fresheners, and even our perfume. In most of these cases, the ingredient that stands out is Ethanol (CH3CH2OH or C2H6O).

Quick science break: Ethanol is the alcohol produced through a fermentation and distillation process, which adds yeast to sugars derived from corn then boiled down as a supplement to our gasoline. About 10% of your car’s fuel comes from processed corn. If that fact is blowing your mind, then the fact that ethanol can be produced from a variety of different crops such as sugar, wheat, rye, and molasses must have you clawing at the walls. The best part is that alcohol, from a cleaning and disinfectant perspective, is incredibly effective. In fact, for a skin, hair, or cleaning product to be deemed “natural”, it MUST use plant-based ethanol.

Here is a short list of your favorite brands that contain ethanol and are thus derivative of the crops that we monitor at TellusLabs:

Home Cleaner: Lysol

Deodorant: Old Spice

Mouthwash: Listerine

Hand Sanitizer: Purell

Face Cleanser: Clearsil

The next time you gargle and spit after a satisfying swish of your favorite mouthwash, the next time you roll on your beloved antiperspirant, the next time you shake a hand of questionable cleanliness and then reach for a squirt of hand sanitizer, remember that a significant portion of that product was once growing in vast field, tended by a farmer.

Then remember that while the farmer was watching it grow in the field, we were watching it grow from space.