Production process week 2
Carmine

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Carmine production step-by-step

Materials: Cacti (Opuntia Ficus-Indica), Various industrial tools like boiling and mixing vats.

Controll method: Mixture of manual and machine labor.

Industry sector: Food, textile, other

Existing products: Food colouring, dye, paint

Various scale insects, like the Cochineal lice, contain red coloured insides which are used for producing Carmine.

Cacti at special farms are infested with these lice, which will breed and multiply.

Big clumps of eggs and insects will form. One hectare of cacti can contain up to 400kilo of lice

The lice are scooped off the cacti and collected in big batches

Once collected the lice and eggs will be mixed together with chemicals to enhance the red colour.

Most used chemicals are Aqua Regia and tin

Finally everything is squashed, boiled and mixed together.

Carmine is most known as E120, used to colour foods red.

Possible interventions & outcomes

1. Using entire cactus instead of removing lice

2. Not using chemicals

3. Adding sweetener during process