Such A Sweet Story

The young man in the centre of this photo is Javier Larragoiti. When he was 18 he began studying for a Chemical Engineering Degree in Mexico City. At the same time, his father was diagnosed with diabetes.
As you know, obesity rates are rising around the world - one in 7 people are obese and 10% of them have type 2 diabetes. Mexico has the second highest rate of obesity anywhere [after the USA].
The Mexican Government has put high taxes on sugary drinks in an attempt to curb this, and is enjoying moderate success.
But Javier's dad has a sweet tooth- he really struggled with sugar substitutes. He tried stevia, and sucralose, but ended up cheating on his diet. Javier decided that alongside his studies, he would use his skills in chemistry for a personal project, to try and help his dad.

He started looking at xylitol - this sugar substitute is often used in chewing gum, but it is more expensive to produce than many other substitutes. It is a sweet-tasting alcohol. In Finland it is made from wood, and often called birch-sugar/birkenzucher - but in America it is produced from sweetcorn.
Javier has spent 10 years developing a production method to extract xylitol from spent corn-cobs. Mexico has an annual 27.5 million tonne sweetcorn crop - and those leftover cobs are usually burned [adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere]
Javier applied for, and obtained, a grant from Chivas Venture. I mentioned them last month, in connection with two guys in Scotland who want to process waste coffee grounds.
Another byproduct of the corn industry is fructose - but although this helps boost the farmers' income, this is not so helpful to the consumers. It is a cheap glucose substitute, popular with food manufacturers.
“It’s kind of ironic,” Larragoiti says. “High fructose corn syrup is just a bomb of carbs and concentrated sugar that makes a high peak of insulin. It’s many times sweeter than regular glucose. Companies use and pay less and that’s the issue.” 
70% of the corn harvest ends up as waste, after the cobs are processed- so there is a lot to be disposed of. Some farmers in the US are working on making peat substitute, and super absorbent oil filters. But Javier's project has real potential to help world health, and the Chivas judges were pleased to award him a grant for his work. 
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is interested in this work too, as they seek to encourage a 'circular economy' for food.
And his Dad is thrilled- he says that he uses his son's product every day, and has stopped cheating on his diet!
Sweet!