Book excerpt: In to days market, custom formulated surfactants are offered for a wide range of applications. The need for surfactants in detergents, cleaning agents, cosmetics & toiletries is second only to an expanding demand in industrial applications. But even within the non-industrial areas the demands have undergone significant changes in recent years. For example, washing and cleaning temperatures have substantially decreased with increased energy conservation attitudes, and more stringent regulatory requirements in the area of ecology and toxicology are leading to new product profiles. New manufacturing technologies and an increased utilization of natural raw materials also factor into this continuing evolution. These changes and trends have been described in numerous publications. However, a summary and survey of these developments is currently missing. The book presented here "Surfactants in Consumer Products" is intended to close this gap. The editor and authors dedicate this work to Dr. Dr. h.c. Konrad Henkel on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Dr. Henkel, himself a scientist and industrialist, contributed signifi cantly to developments in the surfactant field. In the nineteen-fifties, he initiated the change from soap based detergents to synthetic detergents within Henkel. At the same time, dishwashing detergents utilizing various synthetic surfactants were also developed, and became the basis for modem manual and mechanical dishwashing.