The group of students made delicious jelly from cashews.

Every year, after the cashew nuts are harvested, tons of cashew fruit are piled up and wasted. Witnessing this, a group of students in Ba Ria-Vung Tau (formerly) came up with the idea of making jelly from cashew fruit.

Báo Thanh niên•06/09/2025

It's an interesting idea to see cashew nuts being thrown away.

This is a group of five students named "The Jellyvators" from Nguyen An Ninh Secondary School, Tam Thang Ward, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Ba Ria - Vung Tau province). The students have undertaken the Cashew Nata Jelly project, creating a delicious and unique product from cashew fruit juice.

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 1. — Typically, after the cashew nuts are removed, the remaining fruit is discarded, which is very wasteful.

The group consists of 5 members: 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 Pham Nhat Bao Long's hometown, people grow a lot of cashew trees. When harvest season comes, farmers only harvest the cashew nuts and discard the rest of the fruit. "Witnessing the discarded cashew fruits after harvesting, piled up, then decomposing and emitting a very unpleasant stench, we had the idea that we could utilize these cashew fruits to make something. This would both avoid waste and protect the environment," Quynh Anh recounted.

The group's 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 - Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City. There, the group met with Master's degree holder Le Tan Nhan Tu from the University of Technology and shared with him their idea of creating "something from cashew nuts that are being wasted so much."

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.

The group of students conducting research in the laboratory.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE SUBJECT

Nhóm học sinh làm ra thạch thơm ngon từ trái điều - Ảnh 4. — Stone gradually forms

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

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE SUBJECT

Convinced by the students' interesting idea, and being a passionate researcher himself, Mr. Nhan Tu agreed to help and directly guide them in this project.

According to Master's degree holder Le Tan Nhan Tu, cashew nuts have a sweet and astringent taste. While some products made from cashew nuts, such as cashew wine and cashew powder, are already available on the market, the astringent taste remains unresolved in these products. Therefore, he researched and found a way to eliminate the astringent taste of cashew nuts.

"The main component in cashew nuts is mostly water (up to 90%), glucose, fructose, and tannins, which cause the astringent taste. These components can be easily fermented using Acetobacter xylinum bacteria to create cashew jelly . Once the jelly is made, it's essentially cellulose fiber, and the astringent taste can be removed by washing. After discovering this method, I shared it with the students and started the project," Master Nhân Từ shared with a reporter from Thanh Niên Newspaper.

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

From environmental awareness to award-winning products.

The student research team working on the cashew nut jelly project consisted of students of various ages. Master Nhân Từ could not directly conduct the experiments as he was acting as an advisor to the project; therefore, the research and experimentation process to transform the idea into a product was quite challenging.
"The main difficulty lies in guiding the students in conducting experiments and finding the optimal conditions to achieve the highest yield. They lack experience. However, with their eagerness to learn and their creativity, they quickly grasped the fermentation, cultivation, and propagation techniques. Moreover, after creating the yeast and forming the jelly, they independently developed a method to clean and flavor the final product," Master Nhan Tu shared.

Vu Quynh Anh, representing the group, also stated that due to a lack of experience, she and her classmates were quite confused when conducting the experiment on cultivating Acetobacter xylinum bacteria. They struggled with adjusting the pH, creating optimal conditions for bacterial growth, and controlling the fermentation time to achieve the desired thickness and firmness of the jelly. Although some attempts were unsuccessful, with determination and guidance from Mr. Nhan Tu and Ms. Hong Nguyen, they persevered and found a suitable method to create the 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. — The attractive cashew jelly product was conceived and researched by a group of students under the guidance of Master Nhân Từ.

Furthermore, to ensure the best fermentation results, preserving the quality of the cashew fruit is also a challenging issue. Because cashews are soft and easily bruised, even a slight mistake during transportation or washing can ruin the raw material. Therefore, the team had to research effective methods for removing astringency while also finding solutions for handling and preserving the cashew fruit gently to ensure the best quality for the fermentation process.

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

The Cashew Nata Jelly project was awarded second prize at the Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial Youth Innovation Competition (before the province-city merger). It was also awarded at the Bach Khoa Innovation 2025 (BKI) competition. recently, The group received an honorable mention.

"These awards are a recognition of the efforts and creativity of the entire team during the 8 months we spent researching 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 an honorable mention at Bach Khoa Innovation 2025.

But that's not all; the group "The Jellyvators" also has a project called Cashew Nata Jelly. Nguyen Anh Ninh Secondary School, Tam Thang Ward, will represent the school at the Science Castle Asia 2025 competition in Malaysia, which will take place in October this year.

In his role as an advisor for the project, Master Le Tan Nhan Tu said that the team is collaborating and seeking several suppliers and investors to expand the project with the hope of creating a brand of cashew jelly that, when mentioned, people will know it is a product of Vietnam, of Vung Tau.

It is both practically significant and a fascinating scientific story.

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

"Cashew nuts contain a lot of sugar and organic acids, but they are astringent, making them difficult to use in delicious dishes. However, the team has found a highly effective 'niche': fermentation to create cellulose jelly, similar to coconut jelly. This simple method not only yields high productivity and high quality, but also avoids the astringent taste of cashews, transforming this unusable agricultural byproduct into a valuable economic resource. This solution deserves social attention, even though it originated from a student science project," Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Dinh Quan told a reporter from Thanh Nien Newspaper.

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