A group of students made delicious jelly from cashews.

Interesting idea when seeing the cashew fruit being thrown away

That is a group of students named "The Jellyvators" with 5 members from Nguyen An Ninh Secondary School, Tam Thang Ward, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province). The students have implemented the Cashew Nata Jelly project with a delicious and unique product from cashew juice.

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 1. — Usually, after the cashew seeds are removed, the berries are thrown away, which is a waste.

The 5 members of the group include: Pham Nhat Bao Long, grade 9 (group leader); Vu Quynh Anh, grade 8; Chau Kien Van, grade 8; Pham Phuc Nguyen, grade 7 and Nguyen Bao Ngoc, grade 7.

Vu Quynh Anh said that in her hometown, Pham Nhat Bao Long, people grow a lot of cashew trees. When it's harvest season, farmers only harvest the cashew nuts and throw away the rest of the fruit. "Seeing the cashew nuts being thrown away after harvesting, the cashew nuts piled up, then decomposed and gave off a very unpleasant stench, we had an idea: can we make use of these cashew nuts to make something? This will both avoid waste and protect the environment," Quynh Anh said.

The group's natural science teacher at Nguyen An Ninh Secondary School is Ms. Pham Hong Nguyen. On one occasion, Ms. Hong Nguyen took the students to visit the biofuel and biomass laboratory at the University of Technology - Ho Chi Minh City National University, the group met Master Le Tan Nhan Tu of the University of Technology and shared with Mr. Nhan Tu the idea of making "something from the cashew fruit that is being wasted".

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 2.

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 3.

A group of students during research in the laboratory

PHOTO: NVCC

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 4. — The jelly gradually formed.

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 5. — Raw cashew jelly is produced

Convinced by the students' interesting idea, and being a person with a passion for scientific research, Mr. Nhan Tu agreed to help and directly guide the students in this project.

Master Le Tan Nhan Tu said that cashew fruit has a sweet and astringent taste, and there are already some products made from cashew fruit on the market such as cashew wine and cashew powder, but the astringent taste of cashew fruit has not been resolved in these products. Therefore, he researched and found a way to remove the astringent taste of cashew fruit.

"The ingredients in cashew fruit are mostly up to 90% water, glucose, fructose and the main astringent ingredient is tannin. For these ingredients, I can easily ferment to create cashew jelly using Acetobacer xylinum bacteria . And when creating cashew jelly, the nature of this jelly is cellulose fiber, which can remove the astringent taste by washing it. After finding this method, I shared it with the students and started the project," Master Nhan Tu shared with Thanh Nien Newspaper reporter.

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 6. — Fermentation with Acetobacer xylinum bacteria

From environmental awareness to award-winning products

The members of the student group researching the project of making jelly from cashew fruit are of different ages. Master Nhan Tu cannot directly conduct the experiment because he is in the role of consultant for the project. Therefore, the process of researching and conducting experiments to create a product from an idea is quite difficult.
"The difficulty is mostly in guiding the students to do experiments and finding the optimal conditions to achieve the highest productivity. They do not have much experience. However, with the spirit of learning and creativity, they quickly grasped the fermentation technique, culture technique, and propagation technique. Moreover, after creating yeast and jelly, they developed another method to clean and flavor the final product," shared Master Nhan Tu.

Vu Quynh Anh, the group representative, also said that due to lack of experience, when conducting the experiment of cultivating Acetobacter xylinum bacteria, she and her friends were quite confused in the steps of adjusting the pH, creating the best conditions for bacteria to grow, and controlling the fermentation time to make the jelly thick and elastic. Although there were some unsuccessful attempts, with the determination and guidance of Mr. Nhan Tu and Ms. Hong Nguyen, the students tried again and found a suitable method to create agar jelly.

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 8.

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 9. — Attractive cashew jelly product was conceived and researched by a group of students under the guidance of Master Nhan Tu.

Besides, to help the fermentation process achieve the best results, preserving the quality of cashew fruit is also a difficult problem. Because cashew fruit is soft and easily crushed, just a little carelessness in the transportation or washing process can damage the raw material. Therefore, the group must both research effective ways to remove astringency and find solutions to handle and preserve cashew fruit gently to ensure the best quality for the fermentation process.

As a result, the team created a smooth, chewy, sweet, gelatin-free cashew jelly that is healthy and environmentally friendly.

The Cashew Nata Jelly project was awarded second prize at the Youth Innovation Contest of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province (before the province merged). At the Bach Khoa Innovation 2025 (BKI) contest recently, consolation prize winning group

"The awards are a recognition of the group's efforts and creativity during the 8 months we researched together," Quynh Anh said.

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 10.

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 11. — The team won the consolation prize at Bach Khoa Innovation 2025

Not stopping there, the group "The Jellyvators" with the project Cashew Nata Jelly will represent Nguyen Anh Ninh Secondary School, Tam Thang Ward to participate in the Science Castle Asia 2025 competition in Malaysia which will take place in October this year.

In his role as a consultant for the project, Master Le Tan Nhan Tu said the group is cooperating and looking for a number of suppliers and investors to expand the project with the hope of creating a cashew jelly brand that when mentioned, people will know this is a product of Vietnam, of Vung Tau.

Both practical and an interesting scientific story

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Quan, Head of the Biofuel and Biomass Laboratory, University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University) assessed the idea of using cashew juice to make jelly by a group of students from Nguyen An Ninh Secondary School as "simple, but very practical and carries an interesting, logical scientific story".

"Cashews have a lot of sugar and organic acids, but are astringent, making them difficult to use in making delicious dishes. However, the group has found a highly effective "niche". That is to ferment them to create cellulose jelly, similar to coconut jelly. This simple method not only produces high yield and high quality, but is also not affected by the astringent taste of cashews, and at the same time turns this difficult-to-use agricultural by-product into a source of economic value. This solution deserves the attention of society, even though it only originated from a student's science project," Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Dinh Quan told Thanh Nien Newspaper.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhom-hoc-sinh-lam-ra-thach-thom-ngon-tu-trai-dieu-185250901220441058.htm