Residual product from cashew nuts transformed into pectin
The Danish start-up company Fruit-Up has, in collaboration with the Danish Technological Institute, found a method of extracting pectin from the residual product cashew apples. The next step is to optimise the process and try the pectin in selected applications in collaboration with food companies.
Today, the cashew apple is a residual product from the cashew industry, that is still not sufficiently utilised. From each cashew nut, one cashew apple is produced, with the apple reaching up to ten times the size of the nut. In Ghana alone, several millions of tons are wasted each year.
Because of this, the results from the collaboration are very promising in terms of reducing global food waste. The initial yield of the project is a successful method of extracting pectin from cashew apples. Apart from this, the pectines functionality in terms of gel strength has been tested, with results showing enough potential to continue the development of pectin from the cashew apples.
A market for sustainable ingredients
Despite the project’s initial success, there is still a long way before a clean product in large enough quantities can be produced for the commercial pectin marked in Denmark.
However, Fruit-Up assesses that there is room in the market for a smaller producer of pectin. At the same time, the heightened global focus on climate changes and food waste, has resulted in more willingness from producers to utilise their residual products in the development of sustainable new ingredients.
Therefore, the next step for the project is finding partners and investors to initiate a more production-oriented development of cashew apple-pectin.