Tallow, a purified fat from cattle and other large mammals, was once the main feedstock used to make soaps and many other cosmetic ingredients. This changed with the arrival of BSE, or mad cow disease, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. BSE is a brain disease that affected some cattle herds and caused a great deal of concern because it was linked with a similar disease in humans. This led to some dramatic changes in the way animal-derived ingredients are handled in all kinds of products, including cosmetics.
The biggest worry was that BSE was spread by abnormal proteins called prions, which tend to be found in nervous tissue and certain other parts of cattle, rather than in fat itself. The process of making tallow involves separating the fat from these higher-risk materials and then subjecting it to very high temperatures. So it always has been, more or less by chance, a very effective way of eliminating the agent that causes BSE.
Modern methods remove essentially all protein, including any prions, from the finished tallow. For further reassurance, laws and guidelines have been brought in that require strict sourcing, processing and quality checks wherever animal-derived ingredients are used. For most cosmetics, tallow must come from healthy animals that have passed veterinary checks or haven’t been exposed to the risk of BSE in the first place. They have to be processed using steps proven to destroy or remove any trace of BSE infectivity.
On top of that, regulators require every step of production to be fully traceable, with the raw material coming from countries or regions with a negligible risk of BSE, and with special attention paid to making sure there’s no cross-contamination between ingredients. The finished tallow must be virtually free of impurities and should be sterile in terms of any disease agent. Researchers have tested these processes, even deliberately spiking raw animal tissues with infectious material and then treating them under commercial rendering conditions, finding that properly processed tallow is free from detectable BSE infectivity.
For cosmetic manufacturers, the main precautions are to use only tallow that has been processed using these approved methods, keep detailed records, and ensure strict separation to prevent contamination from higher-risk materials. All of these are things that the industry pretty much does instinctively anyway. So in theory it should have been possible to switch back to tallow as a feedstock when the fuss died down.
But in fact what has happened is manufacturers have switched to plant oils such as palm, rape and coconut. These have more or less completely replaced tallow in the last couple of decades.The vast majority of soaps and skincare products on the market now use these alternatives. Most consumers don’t give the origin of the ingredients in their skincare and makeup a second thought. But those that do are more likely to prefer vegetable oils to animal fats. Vegans and vegetarians obviously have strong opinions on the matter. People with environmental concerns will generally be aware that meat production has a much bigger impact than that of vegetable oil. There are some people who object to the environmental damage caused by palm oil, but I doubt they’d be impressed if the response to their concerns was to clear rainforests for beef production instead.
Formulators can work with either source with almost no difficulties at all, so the quality of the final product is not really an issue.
For consumers whose main concern is their own personal health, the bottom line is that the risk from tallow in cosmetics is now considered by people who know about these things to be extremely low. The World Health Organization, scientific committees in the EU, and national food safety agencies all agree on this point. The combination of modern processing and tight traceability, along with strong legal controls, means that the chance of encountering any BSE risk in your moisturiser or lipstick is virtually nil.
Having said that, BSE has not been completely wiped out in the world, and while the risk is minimal at the moment, it’s wise to keep strong controls and regular monitoring in place. A future outbreak, although unlikely, cannot be entirely ruled out, so these safety precautions are here to stay. If you’re at all concerned, you can easily check the label or ask brands about the source of their ingredients. Most companies are already committed to staying well ahead of any risk, both for their own peace of mind and regulatory compliance. Producers of tallow for cosmetic purposes, and companies who use it, would do well to make sure they are in a position to justify what they do in the event of a new outbreak leading to scary news stories. You need to be quick off the mark with these things. The scaremongers always are.
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2005.221