The crushed bodies of a Central and South American insect, called the Cochineal, produces a natural red dye.

They are used for textiles, food-coloring, and cosmetics. Next time you see an ingredients list that includes carmine, cochineal extract or natural red 4, it comes from these bugs.

  • m0darn
    7·
    1 month ago

    Pretty interesting!

    The Wikipedia article has a ton of info. This magazine article which Wikipedia references is imo a better introduction https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/technology/2022/cochineal-red-dye-bugs-moves-lab

    Ateam has managed to bioengineer a fungi to produce it, but with very low yields. Another team has managed to get e coli to produce it, they estimated that a 100,000 L fermenter could produce the same amount as a hectare of land.

    100,000L is 100m^3 which is a cube with 4.7m side length. ~15’x15’x15’ or uhh ~~~the size of 4 F150s.

    Edit to add: a hectare is 100m x 100m ie ~100 yards x 100 yards.