Paracoccus carotinifaciens is an aerobic gram-negative bacterium which belongs to the Proteobacteria class. This micro-organism is naturally found in aquatic soils. It generates a wide sprectrum of carotenoids from the xanthophyll group.

This species was identified in 1999 in Japan and admitted as Paracoccus carotinifaciens by the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes.