The United Kingdom's largest bakery brand, Warburtons, is joining forces with the Canadian International Grains Institute (CIGI) for a multi-year pulse research project to produce healthier baked goods.
Part of the three-year project will include investigating the use of pre-ferment processing on the functionality and end-product quality of doughs containing pulse flours.
Cigi CEO JoAnne Buth says Warburtons' contributions include $680,000 of in-kind support, as well as the building of a pilot-scale fermentation tank at Cigi in an attempt to address things like flavour issues with doughs that use pulse flour.
"So the fermenter, really what it does, is it ferments a yeast and a pulse flour or a wheat flour mix under pressure for a certain amount of time, and you can put air through it," she says. "Then that fermented product is used to make a dough that is then used to make baked products."
Buth says they plan to look at a variety of pulse flours in the ferment, to see how it affects qualities like flavour and protein.
Other objectives of this research project include the development of a pulse database, summarizing new and existing information on the compositional, functional, and flavour properties of pulses, as well as further exploration of the development of pulse-based bakery products.
"At the end of the day, it's all about using these pulses to increase the protein, increase the fibre, and to get a healthier product on the shelf," Buth says.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers will provide the primary funding for the research, with the governments of Canada and Manitoba, the Western Grains Research Foundation and Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers also contributing dollars to the project.
Source : Portageonline