The biotech beauty ingredient firm Debut has created a biotech-derived version of carmine, a bright red pigment that’s widely used in colour cosmetics.
Until now, the pigment has either been made from crushed cochineal beetles, or via synthetic processes that don’t give an exact performance match of natural carmine.
The innovation is particularly timely as there have recently been health concerns about synthetic equivalents. In the US in January 2025, the FDA banned the use of synthetic Red No. 3 following claims that the additive was carcinogenic.
The traditional beetle-derived carmine has a long history dating back to the Mayan and Aztec empires. It’s estimated that around 70,000 beetles are needed to produce one pound of crushed dried insect and a fifth of a pound of carminic acid.
According to Debut, this age-old, animal-derived ingredient is still used in cosmetics because there are a lack of safe and good quality eco-friendly alternatives.
However, the biotech firm has declared that its bio-manufactured carmine offers “unparalleled health, safety, animal-free and environmental advantages, in addition to ensuring a consistent supply chain that is not reliant on the migration pattern of a beetle.”
95% pure carminic acid
Debut claims that its carmine molecule is the same as beetle-derived carmine, but it is also 95% pure versus the industry average of 30% or lower. It noted that the purity of carminic acid derived from the cochineal beetle is exceedingly low, typically 10%.
The biotech ingredient is also devoid of a specific protein in beetle-derived carmine that is known to cause skin irritation. Plus, the firm claims that bio-carmine boasts antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
The innovation has been years in the making and features both a new family of enzymes that “is responsible for a key step and innovative solutions to overcoming expensive inputs during the biomanufacturing process,” said Debut.
“Carmine is one of the hardest molecules to innovate. After a large investment and a lot of hard work, we are very proud to have discovered the all-important missing step in creating renewable carmine that enables us to go from sugar all the way through to this prized molecule,” shared Debut’s founder and CEO, Joshua Britton, PhD.
“Many teams have tried to bio-manufacture carmine over the years with no success due to the complexity and cost of inputs.
“It is only through the advancement of our biotechnology, Debut’s proprietary Bio2ConsumerTM platform, and our differentiated capabilities in biomanufacturing that this innovation has finally come to life.”
Cutting-edge cell-free biomanufacturing
To enable the bioproduction from a renewable low-cost source, Debut has combined its patented microbial production systems with cutting-edge cell-free biomanufacturing to overcome industrial limitation and improve bioproduction by 100-fold versus previous best-in-class attempts.
This helped Debut discover two enzymes and improve their performance to break through a known barrier in bioproduction of carmine.
“There have been several colourants that have been used as replacements to cochineal-derived carmine, but nothing beats the shade, power, stability and vibrancy of carmine in lipstick. Debut’s bio-carmine is the exact same ingredient found in nature, and we can’t wait to see this in beauty formulations soon,” said Britton.
Debut has recently completed pilot-scale bioproduction, enabling the formulation of carminic acid for beauty applications.
The firm now plans to bio-manufacture this animal-free carmine molecule for the beauty industry and said it will later set its sights on the food and beverage industries.
