Disclosed are improved cleaning compositions comprising 
soap&com ma; 
fatty acid, synthetic detersive surfactant, salt and a polyhydridic 
alcohol, which are suitable for formation into precursor cleansing / 
laundry bar “
soap noodles,” personal cleansing bars and 
laundry detergent bars. The compositions comprise: (a) from about 58% to about 93% by weight of an approximately 70% aqueous 
soap slurry; (b) from about 1% to about 15% by weight of a 
fatty acid; (c) from about 2% to about 30% by weight of an approximately 55% aqueous mixture of anionic surfactants comprising i) an alpha sulfonated 
alkyl ester, and ii) a sulfonated 
fatty acid or salts thereof, wherein the ratio of i) to ii) is from about 10:1 to about 1:10; (d) from about 0.5% to about 2% by weight of a salt; (e) from about 0.5% to about 5% by weight of a 25 polyhydridic 
alcohol; and (f) from 0 to about 10% by weight of an alkanolamide of the formula O CH3(CH2)nCNH(CH2)yOH wherein n=6-16, and y is 2-4; The invention additionally relates to an improved process for producing both precursor cleansing / 
laundry bar “soap noodles” and personal cleansing / 
laundry detergent bars 35 comprising combining (a)-(e) to form a liquid mixture at a temperature of about 65° C. to about 105° C., removing from about 50% to about 90% by weight of the water from the liquid mixture, by heating up to 150° C. under vacuum conditions or 105° C. at 
normal conditions to form a thickened mixture, extruding the thickened mixture to form flaked 
solid or semi-
solid pellets or noodles, and optionally, plodding the flaked 
solid or semi-solid 
pellets or noodles to form plodded 
pellets or noodles,f extruding the plodded pellets or noodles to form a billet, 
cutting the billet, and 
stamping the 
cut billet to yield a personal cleansing / 
laundry detergent bar.