High school girls make vegetarian fish sauce from bananas

A group of 11th grade students from Quang Trung High School (Krong Pac district) together carried out the project "Research on banana candy processing process to increase the economic value of bananas in Dak Lak".

Banana candy product made by Dinh Xuan Sang's group

Dinh Xuan Sang (grade 11) shared that in the locality, people grow a lot of bananas, and sometimes bananas are thrown away and fed to livestock. After further investigation, they realized that bananas in Dak Lak are mainly consumed fresh or dried, and the output is still unstable and depends heavily on the market.

From the concerns of helping people consume bananas and opening up a new direction for banana products in Dak Lak, the group processes bananas into products such as banana candy, dried bananas, and soft bananas to increase economic value and diversify output.

Banana candy products are chewy, chewy, and sweet.

According to Sang, the raw materials for making banana candy are easy to find, including: bananas, ginger, kumquat peel, pineapple, peanuts, white sesame, dried coconut, sugar, and malt. After selecting and processing the raw materials, the group conducted an experiment to cook candy using a manual process.

After many failures, the group has successfully tested the product with the following standards: Candy is soft, flexible, chewy, has a banana aroma, and has a sweet taste. "The initial experiment was successful, in the short term, our group hopes to solve the problem of surplus agricultural products in the family, and in the future, we will aim to develop more professional products," Sang shared.

Project "How to make vegetarian fish sauce from moldy bananas and shiitake mushrooms" by two 8th grade female students

Cao Khanh Linh and Ho Pham An Nhi (grade 8, Le Dinh Chinh Secondary School, Ea Sup district) took advantage of raw materials from bananas to research and implement the project "How to make vegetarian fish sauce from moldy bananas and shiitake mushrooms".

According to Khanh Linh, nowadays, people pay attention to health and many people tend to have a healthy diet. Linh's group wants to create a vegetarian product that is cholesterol-free and low in iodine.

Taking advantage of local raw materials, the two female students started working. An Nhi said that from simple raw materials including: moldy banana, salt, shiitake mushrooms, palm sugar and water, through the processing process, they created a vegetarian fish sauce with natural ingredients, no preservatives, no colorants, delicious, nutritious and low cost. This is the ideal choice for those who care about heart health and blood pressure.

Delicious and nutritious vegetarian fish sauce

The product was sent for testing at the Institute of Biotechnology and Environment, Tay Nguyen University. Khanh Linh and An Nhi hope to improve the product in the future to expand the scale and bring the product to consumers.

Two projects "Research on banana candy processing process to increase the economic value of bananas in Dak Lak" and "How to make vegetarian fish sauce from moldy bananas and shiitake mushrooms" won the fourth prize at the science and technology research competition for high school students in Dak Lak province for the 2024-2025 school year, held in early 2025.

Nguyen Thao

Source: https://tienphong.vn/nhom-nu-sinh-trung-hoc-che-nuoc-mam-chay-tu-qua-chuoi-post1727748.tpo