Science company Royal DSM has begun customer sampling of the world’s first fully bio-based vitamin A.
Vitamin A is a potent anti-ageing compound, widely used in formulations to reduce fine lines, wrinkles and blemishes, and to increase collagen production.
DSM’s new process relies on a specially-developed strain of yeast that converts a renewable carbon source into vitamin A.
The process has been refined and proven scalable via collaboration across six DSM facilities in Lexington and Columbia, US; Delft, The Netherlands; Grenzach, Germany; and Kaiseraugst and Sisseln in Switzerland.
“We realised we had something revolutionary at hand when we first isolated vitamin A out of a bio-broth with a profile consistent to our existing process,” said Ronald Gebhard, DSM’s VP Biosciences & Process Innovation.
“Our new fully bio-based process relies on commonly available renewable raw materials and results in a lower carbon footprint and less waste while still delivering the industry-beating quality expected of DSM.”
The company will initially produce bio-based vitamin A for the personal care market and application testing is now underway with its first selected customers.
Representative material is said to be available for sampling ahead of a commercial-scale production and a full launch in early 2023.
In addition, vitamin A has various nutritional uses, and DSM said it is developing further applications for the human and animal health markets with testing soon to get underway.
“Vitamin A is one of the most in-demand and trusted cosmetic ingredients on the market and we will now be able to offer an alternative with significant environmental advantages,” commented Parand Salmassinia, VP Personal Care & Aroma at DSM.
“Our innovation will help DSM’s customers lead their product categories in sustainability, offering a considerable contribution to their climate change actions and net zero goals.
“We are seeing an overwhelmingly positive response and look forward to commercialising this innovation in the personal care industry starting next year.”
Joerg von-Allmen, DSM’s Vice President, Vitamins Category Management, added: “Until now, the only way to meet the growing demand for vitamin A has been to build new multi-step chemical production facilities requiring more finite resources.
“DSM’s new bio-based process will significantly reduce the carbon footprint and waste of vitamin A manufacturing while still producing the top-quality customers expect.”
