Finding beauty in a wasted bio-derivative
Article
Sugar beets may not top anyone’s weekly shopping list, but they have an important role in the global food supply, providing about 20% of the world’s sugar. Sugar beets are also a natural source of betaine—a useful moisture retention and protection ingredient in skin, hair, and color cosmetics products. For most sugar beet sugar mills, this high-value co-product is trapped in a molasses waste that the mills sell as animal feed.
However, seeing the potential to create new value from an underused byproduct, DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences scientists worked in partnership with sugar beet processors to develop a process that both increases sugar yields from beets and recovers a molasses stream that’s rich in natural betaine. DuPont GENENCARE® OSMS is then produced by extracting and purifying the betaine from the de-sugared molasses. Customers use GENENCARE® OSMS as a natural ingredient that enables moisturization and protection in cosmetics, skin care and hair care products.
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