C16 Biosciences unveils palm oil alternative platform for environmentally sustainable beauty NPD

04 Nov 2022 --- C16 Biosciences is introducing Palmless, a consumer-facing brand platform that will bring alternatives to unsustainable palm oil. The platform launch comes at the heels of the company’s 50,000-liter industrial-scale fermentation completion. The company also hints on releasing a beauty product featuring its Palmless Torula Oil.

Palmless is pegged as a novel approach to the problem of agricultural palm oil, which is linked to deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and exploitative labor practices.

“Palmless means manufacturers in the beauty space now have a better solution to agricultural palm and consumers have a language with which to demand better from their beauty brands,” Shara Ticku, CEO and co-founder at C16 Biosciences, tells PersonalCareInsights. 

Regarding the impact the Palmless platform could have on the personal care industry and its consumers, Ticku says that: “Global supply chains have many vulnerabilities and supply chains rooted in global agricultural commodities are one of the most vulnerable.”

C16 Biosciences will introduce a new beauty product in 2023 featuring its Palmless Torula Oil.“Today, many raw materials are grown in the global South, where property and labor laws are lax and land is cheap. However, many of those materials – like palm oil – can only be grown in limited geographies and geopolitical, climate and economic disruptions frequently impact the supply of these crops.”

Seeking palm oil alternatives
According to the company, Palmless will be useful in various consumer packaged goods (CPG) applications, such as beauty, personal care, home care and food. In early 2023, the beauty sector will release the first products containing a Palmless ingredient.

This overreliance on global agricultural commodities is a significant weakness in our current supply chain system, including the personal care sector. Palmless offers personal care manufacturers a secure supply of a high-quality palm oil substitute, explains Ticku.

Despite the attention of many stakeholders, issues related to palm oil production have persisted since C16 Biosciences began its search for a sustainable alternative in 2018.

Palm oil can be found in nearly half of all products on supermarket shelves, from ice cream to baby formula, shampoo to lipstick and demand for the ingredient is increasing. To meet this demand, US imports of palm oil have nearly tripled since 2014.

Moving away from traditional palm oil agriculture
Palm oil is an incredibly efficient crop – it is abundant and inexpensive to produce, explains Ticku.

Palmless is pegged as a novel approach to the problem of agricultural palm oil, which is linked to deforestation and biodiversity loss.“The critical unlock of our biomanufacturing is that it doesn’t require the resources, raw materials, climate conditions or arable land that traditional palm oil agriculture requires.”

“Because other oil crops have lower yields than oil palm, replacing it with other agricultural oils is not a solution. Palm oil needs to be produced more environmentally sustainably,” Ticku adds. 

A simple shift from palm oil to other oil crops is not a solution, as it may lead to further biodiversity loss. She explains that the oil from palm trees produce up to nine times more oil per unit area than other major oil crops and can help meet global demand for vegetable oils, estimated to grow from an annual 165 million metric tonnes, now to 310 million metric tonnes in 2050.

New product on the horizon
The company’s developments come just over two years after C16 Biosciences closed a US$20 million Series A investment round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Waldencast and Future Tech Labs, among others.

“One of the reasons we invested in C16 was because we knew they had the potential to turn science into a commercial reality. Palmless becoming a challenger brand is an important next step as it will give consumers the power to choose products that do less harm,” says Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Ticku details plans to introduce a new beauty product in 2023: “The beauty product launch is very exciting. We can’t say what it is called, but it contains Torula Oil, a luxe bio-designed oil that sits at the intersection of performance moisturization and natural innovation. Rich in signature carotenoids and sterols from its fungal origins, it’s beauty’s new super-ingredient.”

She explains that the challenges they face are no different from other synthetic biology companies: it takes a lot of time and money to scale operations.

“We have completed a 50,000 L fermentation, secured all necessary safety and regulatory data, and are ready for our first product launch,” she concludes.

By Nicole Kerr