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.
