Is foam intrinsically important to the dish-cleaning process, or is this just a correlation?

Question

I’ve noticed when cleaning dishes that when the cleaning solution is “sudsy,” cleaning seems to happen more quickly (less scrubbing, etc.).

Is this because:

* The suds themselves help with cleaning
* The suds don’t help with cleaning but they indicate that the cleaning solution has a particular desirable property;
* The suds don’t help with cleaning and aren’t related to any desirable property.

A related question is: For any effective cleaning solution can one create a cleaning solution which is just as effective but has very little sudsiness?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

The perception is that more suds equals a better cleaning product. Have you ever heard of dish detergent being phosphate free? It’s because some companies in the past added phosphates to make better bubbles and the bubbles are terrible for the environment.