Beans board studies bread baking possibilities

Beans are being held up as one of healthiest foods people can eat, due in part to their gluten-free charac­teristics, which are currently be­ing investigated by the Onta­rio Bean Producers Marketing Board.
“Beans are the perfect food,” said Tino Breuer, gen­eral manager of the board. “They’re approximately 18 per cent fibre, 62 per cent carbo­hy­drates and 23 per cent protein. They’re being recognized for their possible cancer and cardio vascular disease-fighting com­pounds, and with more and more people developing gluten allergies, there’s a need for alternatives to wheat as a main element.”
With that in mind, the board has begun investigating the possibility of milling beans into flour for use as a gluten-free bak­ing ingredient. The board is wondering if there is a future where coffee-shop custo­mers could order a gluten-free donut that tastes exactly like the wheat-based standard, but is made with bean flour?  
The project, utilizing over $17,000 provided by Agricul­ture and Agri-Food Canada, through the Agricultural Adap­tation Council’s CanAdvance program, aims to understand not only the market opportu­nities for a bean-based flour, but also what effects proces­sing has on the health compon­ents of the actual beans.
“Ultimately the processed bean product needs to look, feel and taste like the regular ingre­dients,” said Breuer. “If it can’t be a direct replacement, it will never sell. The gluten-free bread must taste like ‘real’ bread.”  
Bette Jean Crews, chairman of the Agricultural Adaptation Council, said, “Developing an­other use for beans, especially undersized or ‘cull’ beans could be of great benefit to Onta­rio farmers. Currently there are over 80,000 acres of white beans, and 60,000 acres of coloured beans grown in the province.”
Although building a plant to process the beans, may be more than a decade away, the con­cept has potential. Ideally such a facility would be able to sepa­r­ate the bean into its fibre, carbohydrate, and protein com­ponents, with high value, alter­native health products being developed from each. If suc­cess­ful, the same plant could be adapted to process other cull crops, including undersized sweet potatoes or asparagus.
For now, the bean produc­ers, with the help of MBA students at Wilfrid Laurier University, are concentrating on analyzing the market poten­tial as well as testing various end products. The answer as to what makes beans unique may well soon be discovered.
The Agricultural Adaptation Council is a non-profit, grass roots coalition of 71 agricul­tur­al, agribusiness and rural organi­zations dedicated to providing financial resources to help Ontario’s agriculture and agri-food industry remain prof­i­table, grow and maintain its economic strength.