Food products in the supermarket often leave a big trail of waste. This is certainly the case with the cashew nut. In ACS Food Science & Technology, researchers from Colombia have come up with a solution: plant-based burgers made from the cashew apple. 

The price of cashews is always higher than you’d hope. This is true for many nuts, but in the case of cashews it is caused by the fact that up to 90% of the product is considered waste. That’s because the cashew apple, the false fruit of the cashew tree, is usually thrown away, despite the fact it is not only edible but also rich in nutrients. So María Hernández-Carrión and her colleagues at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, set out to find an alternative use for the cashew apple. The result: a new plant-based burger of a waste product.