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No mention of any such more industrialized process on Wikipedia [1], it's bugs all the way. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine https://en.m.wikipedia

• zaarn 9y ago
  That's interesting indeed. I guess that's kinda cool we haven't been able to synthesize this chemical yet for mass production
  • mariuolo 9y ago
    "Producing a kilogram of it requires 80-100'000 insects. Because of its high cost and the risk of allergic reactions, it's often replaced by synthetic dyes like E122, E124 or E132".
    • dotancohen 9y ago
      Note that both E122 and E124 are Azo dyes, which severely impact mental development. Those are two of the six dangerous food colorings that give all food colorings a bad name. In fact, the ground up bugs (E120) are much healthier than the synthetic products. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azo_dye https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azo_dye
• dsnuh 9y ago
  Hmm would I rather have Carmine or Castoreum today? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum