Thanks to Wired magazine, I discovered that Downy contains animal fat. Gross. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Dihydrogenated tallow dimenthyl ammonium chloride: A derivative of rendered fat from cattle, sheep, and horses. Just boil it down and mix with ammonium. After a series of chemical pit stops, out comes a quaternary ammonium compound, or quat– a positive ion in which the hydrogen is replaced by long-chain organic molecules. Quats effectively coat your clothing with lipids, making fibers soft to the touch. These fats also make fabric a bit less absorbent– don’t use on towels or cloth diapers– and the positive charge neutralizes static electricity. There are a few other quats in Downy, with easily pronouncable names like 1-methyl-1-tallowamidazolinium methylsulfate.

The article goes on to explain there are a slew of other chemicals needed in order to tame the animal fat. Calcium chloride keeps it from clumping, PEG 8000 keeps it from separating, kathon CG keeps it from getting rancid, perfume masks the animal smell, Ethanol and isopropanol keep it from freezing and solidifying into lard, and deionized water keeps it from yellowing. Nasty.

Thanks, Wired, for revealing Downy’s disgusting recipe for “cleaning” clothes.