A well-balanced diet is the best way to maintain or improve one’s health. But if your dishes are not washed with proper care, what you eat matters little. There are no dearth of choices when it comes to dishwashing soaps and each make tall claims. From “sparkling clean”, “touch and shine”, “aquashine”, “zero wastage” and “anti-bacterial” to “powered with lime/wood ash/active boosters”—there’s even some claiming to be “100% vegetarian”.

Consumer VOICE surveyed 10 dishwashing soaps and subjected them to laboratory rigours to assess their performance. The lab tested Xpert, Vim, Prill, Exo, Nip, Reliance scrub, Odopic, Pitambari, Patanjali and 555 on various parameters such as the active matter or cleansing agents present in the soap, cleaning efficiency, surface damage, foam/lather, tough soil cleaning ability and more.

Based on the overall test findings, Xpert is the top performer in all the tests, followed by Exo and Vim. All the soaps were successfully able to remove oil and grease from utensils. Nip has the highest amount of cleansing agent present while 555 has the lowest.

Most of us want to keep our plates shiny and looking new for as long as we can. But constant scrubbing and washing with dishwashing soaps can damage their surface. VOICE found that all these bars did minimal damage to the utensils and all were thus well-suited for daily use.  

The worst thing about a bar of soap is that, after repeated use, the bar starts to retain moisture and becomes soggy. It cannot used anymore and tends to go to waste. If you want to avoid that, VOICE suggests that you go with Vim, as it retained the least water.