Goiás’ project was selected to represent Brazil at an event in the United States with cocoa residue that can be used as a sweetener | Goyas

“Selecting ten teams from around the world to train, drive and influence food. We are very happy and fulfilled by this recognition,” said the chemical engineer.

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The video shows the emotions of Gustavo and ten others selected from around the world when they learned they were chosen during a video conference, out of 3,000 projects submitted from 140 countries. (see below).

“I’m very nervous”, said Gustavo when he found out he was chosen.

Gustavo is the head of the “Elixir Foods” project created by UFG students and alumni. Apart from her, the panel includes publicist Radharani Claro, pharmacy student Ana Santos, software engineering student Joyce Beatrice and journalist Nami Yoshioka.

• UFG student creates fat-free, low-calorie chocolate

They made a study of cocoa residue, which they discovered during a trip to Bahia. There, they discovered that the product was discarded, and since then, they’ve been looking for ways to turn it into a nutritious food that promotes sustainability. As it has a nutritive and sugary potential, it is among the possibilities to use it as a sweetener.

“When they produce cacao, ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ When they produce this residue, it’s discarded many times. It’s poorly used, it’s unstable, it ferments quickly, so our goal is to develop ways to stabilize and transform the residue into a food. Because it’s high in sugar, candy Foods can be made sweet,” he said.

The team from Goiás will participate in the Think for Food Challenge, which is supported by the United Nations (UN) and seeks creative solutions regarding agri-food technology in the world. The mission of the program is “to create, train and support a new generation to solve the planet’s most urgent challenge: how to sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050?”.

The first face-to-face meeting of the challenge will take place from September 27 to October 1 in New York, USA. Gustavo explains that the trip will be for the students to get their first orientation about the project.

Then, in December, Gustavo must return to New York and, in fact, present the cocoa residue project. At the end of the presentation, the best projects will be selected and the winning team will be supported with up to 30 thousand dollars in addition to other prizes.

Gustavo said he went to Bahia to learn about chocolate production and look for partners. On this trip, he discovered cocoa residue, which was discarded. Since then, he has been researching ways to turn cocoa into a nutritious food to improve sustainability in the cocoa production chain.

From there, he and his team created an incubated company called “Elixir Foods” whose mission was to promote the stabilization of these residues with cocoa farmers and transport them to the processing unit to create new safe food for people.

After that, they entered the idea in the Food Challenge and were confirmed on Tuesday (6) to participate in the challenge, among ten projects selected from more than 3 thousand projects from 140 different countries.

Since Gustavo is the project leader, he will be ticketed by the organization of the challenge. However, the team wants other team members to go with him, so they are fundraising online to buy tickets.

Gustavo had already stood out in 2020 Created a fat-free, low-calorie type of chocolate. The product is made with cocoa and apple and is free of sugar, gluten and lactose. According to Young, a spoonful of the product contains 39 calories, while the same amount of traditional chocolate has more than 100 calories.

Through the UFG Incubator program, Gustavo created the startup “Nutricandis” in collaboration with the university team. Almost two years later, Gustavo says the fat-free chocolate program is still in full swing.

“This current plan [do resíduo de cacau] This is an extension of our work,” he said.

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