Aluminium Lactate can be used as an alternative to Aluminium Acetate. It is used as a mordant and fixative for natural dyes on all cellulose fibre including cotton, bamboo, flax and tencel. It improves light and washfastness of all natural dyes and achieves intense, clear colours.
On cotton use 7-10% to Weight of Fabric (optional: after a bath of gallnut (or other tannins of light colour) for a better fixation of the mordant). Also use in combination with iron mordant or a finishing bath for shading with an iron salt (max 1.5% WOF) to widely increase the number of shades.
Aluminium Lactate is manufactured from lactic acid obtained by fermentation of renewable materials (i.e. molasses from the sugar production or from the starch industry or from the lactose separated from milk). It is a good substitute for Aluminium Acetate and less environmentally damaging. The product certified compliant to GOTS 6.0.
Keep in an airtight container and avoid exposure to high humidity.
Choose from 25g or 100g bag.
Please note: Aluminium Acetate is no longer available in the UK and EU due to REACH (registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals) legislation. This requires all businesses selling more than 1 tonne of a chemical substance that is manufactured in, or imported into Great Britain, to demonstrate how the substance can be used safely. The distributor must also communicate the risk management measures to the users. This involves a substantial program of testing which may include animal testing. It applies to each chemical sold, making it expensive and onerous for UK distributors.
Where sales in the UK of a substance are above 1 tonne per annum but still small, distributors will often decide not to supply the substance. This is not due to safety risks but on a simple economic basis. Below 1 tonne per annum, it is even more uneconomic to obtain and distribute.
The market in the UK for aluminium acetate and aluminium lactate is too small for any UK distributor to take on the responsibility for approval of these chemicals. However for some substances such as these, the market across Europe is large enough for a distribution system to exist. On that basis both aluminium acetate and aluminium lactate can on occasions be obtained from distributors within the EU.
The next and necessary step is for a EU based distributor to be prepared to purchase the minimum sized consignment, often 1,000Kg or more. At present aluminium lactate is available for a retailer to ship (expensively and bureaucratically) from a supplier in Europe. This is why we can currently obtain aluminium lactate and not aluminium acetate.
