Fresh fruit and vegetables tend to have pesticides on their surfaces even after they are harvested. Arika started investigating a more practical and cheaper way to eliminate what was still there in the food. We all know that still washing fruits and vegetables can remove the dirt and some chemicals, but that is not always enough.
That was when she thought about food factories that throw away a lot of waste every day. And peanut shells started as a turning point to create a natural filter, giving a second use to agricultural waste.
What LIGNEX is designed to do
LIGNEX uses a process called biosorption, in which in this case the treated peanut-shell material is intended to trap the pesticides on the fruit or vegetables.
What the project wants is to reduce the chemicals on the surface of the food, and Kundu’s test results showed the tablet removed 93.94% of the model contaminant, though the exact pesticides tested have not been detailed.
That is why it cannot yet be used as a “daily use product”, because first, you need to test it well on different crops and chemicals. If this is to happen, researchers will also need to check and analyze how to prepare the material, how to dispose of it, and if it leaves any residue in the food.
One waste stream could help tackle another problem
What this young student invented is actually the type of circular economy that ecological projects look for. The peanut shells instead of going to the trash, are now a material used to “take care” of the food’s health, turning a discarded product into something that can be super useful.
The $25,000 science competition ahead
The 3M Young Scientist Challenge, organized by 3M and Discovery Education, is a very famous and big competition. It had many past editions and it is opened for fifth and eighth grade students, who present short videos explaining scientific solutions to real and daily problems.
In the competition, the judges take into account many things, not just the project itself. They see creativity and the way the students communicate their ideas. Each of the 10 finalists receives mentorship from a 3M scientist to improve their project before arriving at the big final at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
There, in the final competition, students will have to solve problems and challenges, presenting their work and answering questions about it. It is on Oct. 12 and 13 that judges will choose the “America’s Top Young Scientist” to receive $25,000.
Why Arika wants to keep developing LIGNEX
Arika is a very interesting student who already has a strong track record. She also won the Minnesota State Merit Award in 2025, and said that she wanted to enter the 3M Young Scientists Challenge to improve her invention and to turn it into a product that can help everyone. Now she is a national finalist, but her goal is to go beyond this competition, because she wants to be an astrobiologist working specifically in computational biology for the following next 15 years.
What comes next for the peanut-shell project
The results are still not available and it will be interesting to see how far the student’s ideas can go when she receives professional mentorship and more precise tests. The big question before the big day is: Can LIGNEX reduce pesticides in a safe, cheap and practical way in daily life?
Arika may not win, and that is part of competitions. But she still demonstrated something important, and that is how something that we tend to ignore can be the first step for food safety and waste reduction.
The official statement was published on 3M News Center on July 6, 2026.
