Embrapa has developed a type of cheese analogue and a beverage made of babassu nuts. The products are a result of the union between traditional knowledge and science. Sensory analysis and purchase intent tests showed positive results. The products represent new options of income to hundreds of traditional communities that depend on babassu exploitation in Brazil. The products add value and expand niche market, based on new consumer demand worldwide. The technology has been transferred to female babassu coconut breakers in Maranhão state, which concentrates over 90% of this nut production and marketing in Brazil. The research counted on national and international partners. The nut within babassu coconuts is the main raw material of a cheese analogue and a beverage developed by Embrapa. The plant-based products can replace dairy ones, either for those who cannot have traditional dairy products or just do not want to have them. Furthermore, the products are new options of income for the community organizations of female babassu coconut breakers in Maranhão state, who already produce ice-cream, biscuits, among other items. According to the Embrapa Cocais researcher and leader of the project, Guilhermina Cayres, food produced from Brazilian biodiversity, which valorizes traditional knowledge and the history of social groups, has a great potential to reach a niche market that appreciate products with such characteristics. “It is the case of babassu-based food made by female babassu coconut breakers. Both the plant-based beverage, which is similar to milk, and the cheese analogue represent opportunities of innovation in babassu value chain, joining traditional and scientific knowledge, generating business, and promoting entrepreneurship of community organizations concerning a sociobiodiversity species: babassu”, she states. Selene Benevides, a researcher at Embrapa Tropical Agroindustry,in Ceará state, which developed the cheese analogue, defines the project as being of social innovation, since its objective is to contribute to developing activities carried out by communities of female coconut breakers, whose survival depends on vegetal extractivism. “In Maranhão state, they already produce some babassu-based foods. These new products had their parameters evaluated based on similar ones in accordance with the law and market”, she explains. The cheese analogue's flavor and aroma are similar to the ones of fermented dairy products. Benevides explains that, because of the sweet taste of babassu, manufacturing involves a fermentation process that reduces sweetness, increases acidity, and imparts flavor and aroma similar to traditional cheeses. The babassu coconut is high in lipids and low in proteins, so a soy protein source was added, and the result was a kind of cheese presenting all content of protein of a traditional one. The beverage is an extract obtained from ground nuts of babassu coconut in water, in the ratio of 1 kg of nuts to 3 L of water, besides other ingredients to improve its stability and flavor. The product must be pasteurized to be ready for consumption and kept under cooling temperature, which can be consumed within 15 days, as other plant-based pasteurized beverages. The national market already presents various industrialized plant-based beverages, made of nuts, rice, among others, but there is not one made of babassu nut. The researcher Nedio Wurlitzer, also from Embrapa Tropical Agroindustry, who worked on the development of the product, says the main proposal is to present new possibilities for the use of babassu nuts, which allows reaching new niche markets in Maranhão state, valuing artisanal preparation. In his opinion, the development of technological processes taking advantages of the whole nut can improve the female babassu coconut breakers’ income. Both products performed well in sensory analysis and purchase intent tests. Acceptance of the cheese analogue was 7, on a scale ranging from 1 to 9, and the purchase intent was 4, on a scale ranging from 1 to 5. The beverage presented acceptance of 6.4, on a scale ranging from 1 to 9, and purchase intent of 3.5, on a scale ranging from 1 to 5. The beverage yield is also important to mention: each kilo of babassu nuts produces 3 liters of the beverage, which is an excellent amount for the industry. Training encourages female babassu coconut breakers The whole production process of the cheese analogue and of the beverage was taught to the female coconut breakers in a course carried out in 2022, at the Laboratory of Agroindustrial Processes at Embrapa Tropical Agroindustry. The training was on the production process and good production practices. Ten female coconut breakers, three gastronomy students, three teachers, and seven scientific initiation scholarship students took the course. The new products encouraged the female coconut breakers, who already work with the use of other foods derived from babassu in cooperatives of manufacture. The breaker Gracilene Cardoso considered important to learn how to work with babassu in other ways. “With the training, we gained one more derived quality product, which will increase our income”. She states that she is proud of working with babassu coconut, activity she has been carrying out since she was a child, and it is the same job mother and grandmother used to do. “I am proud of being a babassu coconut breaker, because it is a natural product. We do not need to cut down trees, burn, or use pesticides to grow babassu, what we use is provided by nature”, she says. The breaker Rosana Sampaio says that with the new items she will be able to improve the portfolio of the cooperative she works. “We will count on a high-quality product, which will provide better profits”, she celebrates. She highlights the breakers earn very little money and knowing about the process is important to value the activity. “It is very difficult for us to extract the flesh of the babassu coconut. There are people who do not have any work and earn more than the ones who work a lot. I believe it happens because they do not know how the process is”, she reveals. The breaker Antônia Vieira, from Itapecuru Mirim quilombola community, thinks that, with the new knowledge, the production process will get better. She is part of Pedrinha Clube de Mães quilombola community and is one of the owners of Delícias do Babaçu agroindustry. “We have new ideas here, and they are great”, she comments. Maria Domingas Marques Pinto, coordinator of the Quebradeiras de Coco de Itapecuru Mirim Cooperative, of Pedrinhas Clube de Mães community, summarizes the importance of integrated work: “A dream dreamt alone is just a dream that is dreamt alone, but a dream dreamt together comes true”. Babassu ensures income for hundreds of families Babassu, a product of the Brazilian sociobiodiversity, guarantees the base of extrativist economy of thousand families from traditional communities located mainly in Maranhão, Tocantins, Pará, and Piauí states. According to the researcher Roberto Porro, from Thematic Center of Family Farming and Environmental Dynamics of Embrapa Eastern Amazon, in the traditional market of babassu products, the fruit is the main component of the palm tree, due to its noblest part: the nut. Maranhão state concentrates over 90% of the total babassu nuts produced and marketed in Brazil. Additionally, the thousand communities, in which the babassu extrativism is traditionally practiced, are characterized by prominence and protagonism of the female babassu coconut breakers, whose sociocultural identity is linked to nut extraction for subsistence and sale to local merchants destined for the oil industry. The main products obtained from babassu nuts are oil, traditional oil, and milk-like beverage, all used for cooking. The mesocarp (eatable fleshy part between the endocarp and the exocarp) of babassu coconut is usually consumed as medicinal food and supplement. For its high content of starch (around 70%), it has been used in the production of bread, cake, biscuits, porridge, beiju, among other foods, as well as a hot beverage known as “babassu chocolate”. The strength that comes from babassu palm forests Cayres joined the expectations of the female babassu coconut breakers in improving their business to the potential consumption of babassu byproducts, besides the opportunity of these foods reach specific niche markets of artisanal products with sociocultural and territorial values, with geographical indication, besides being suitable for consumers with dietary restrictions. Over 40 agriextrativist groups were consulted in order to understand their real demands concerning babassu, which confirmed the interest of the breakers in increasing the quantity and the quality of the babassu byproducts made of the nut. “The result was the articulation of Embrapa Cocais, breakers’ communities, and public-private institutional partners to develop the innovation project “Novos Alimentos com Amêndoa de Babaçu” [New Foods with Babassu Nut], whose objective is to develop new processes and products with babassu nut, to reach different niche markets, adding value to the product. For example, the milk-like beverage and the cheese analogue, which were approved in the sensory analysis. The breakers who participated in the training will transfer the social technology, in the first semester of 2023, to their communities and other social groups”, the researcher says. According to Wurlitzer, the researches were based on the knowledge acquired with similar products and water-soluble extracts, which have milk appearance, such as beverages made of cashew nut, almond, and rice, also taking into consideration the breakers’ knowledge, who extract the beverage from the nut. Benevides worked on the development of the cheese analogue made of babassu nut, product not developed by the breakers, being the first babassu vegetal cheese developed by Embrapa. “We hope this product increases the babassu product portfolio and reach niche markets, generating income and life quality to the breakers”, he comments. National and international partners The project is the extension of recent experiences of Embrapa Cocais with open innovation, involving institutional partners and coconut breakers from Vale do Itapecuru territory, in Maranhão state, in the microregion of Chapadinha. Partners in this project, they have a tradition in babassu extrativism, along with extrativism groups who harvest, process, and produce babassu-based foods. In addition, it is part of other advanced studies on babassu-based foods, such as new recipes for biscuits and ice-cream, developed by coconut breakers and partners. The studies involve different food market demands: nutrition, health, food quality and safety, valuation of local cuisine and culture, gastronomy, tourism, among others, which socially includes babassu coconut breakers. Other products are being tested, such as condensed-milk-like and coffee-like foods, babassu nut flour, grounded babassu nut, hamburger-like product, and processing of gongo, larva taken from the babassu coconut, served both raw and fried. The traditional communities involved in the research are the following: Cooperativa das Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu de Itapecuru-Mirim (Coobavida), União dos Clubes de Mães de Itapecuru-Mirim, Associação das Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu do Povoado União do Município de Itapecuru-Mirim, Clube de Mães Quilombolas Lar de Maria, Agroindústria Comunitária de Derivados do Babaçu, Associação das Quebradeiras de Coco de Chapadinha, Cooperativa Mista dos Agricultores do Vinagre among others. Direct and indirectly, there are private-public institutional partners, such as the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), Federal Institute of Maranhão (IFMA), Federal University of Ceará (UFC), Associação Maranhense dos Artesãos Culinários (Amac) and Conecta Brasil 360, the last one to provide visibility, connection, and business structure for the babassu-based products. In other words, the project is contributing to build a process of social innovation with groups of babassu coconut breakers. Under the umbrella of the Bem Diverso Project – a partnership among Embrapa, Global Environment Fund (GEF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) –, the project is funded by the Maranhão Scientific and Technological Research and Development Support Foundation (Fapema), The Good Food Institute (GFI), German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forestry Network (Rede ILPF).