Sept. 8, 2009 – From Aug. 26 to 29 I had the pleasure of
getting to know Alberta’s pulse industry. Pulses, if you didn’t know, are
beans, peas and lentils, and they’re increasingly being used as functional and
nutritional ingredients in the food manufacturing industry, including baking
,
as they are naturally high in fibre and have almost no fat or sodium.
They're naturally gluten-free and are an excellent source of
folate.
Sponsored by Pulse Canada, the Alberta Pulse Growers
Association and the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the
“Health People/Healthy Planet” tour shined a light on the fascinating work being
done by the growers and processors in this $200 million industry. We visited a
working farm where 425 acres of peas are grown; the kitchen of TV chef and
cookbook author Lovoni Walker; Mountain Meadows pea butter processing facility;
Kinnickinnick Foods, one of Canada’s oldest and most successful producers of
gluten-free breads and snacks; and the Food Processing Development Centre in
Leduc, Alta., where researchers are making important strides in bringing pulse
products to the market.
We also visited a research farm run by the University of Alberta, where pulse crops are being studied because of their excellent nitrogen fixation abilities. This means they add nitrogen to the soil while they grow, so farmers can use less artificial fertilizer and reduce carbon emissions.
I’ll be reporting more in depth about this tour in an
upcoming issue of Bakers Journal, but I wanted to take this opportunity to
thank everyone involved in putting the event together and executing it
flawlessly. They are: Peter Watts and Tracey Thompson of Pulse Canada; Sheri
Strydhorst and Wendy Benson of Alberta Pulse Growers; and Penny Mah and Mark
Olson of the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
I encourage you to take a look at how pulse flours and other
pulse ingredients can enhance your products by visiting www.pulse.ab.ca or www.pulsecanada.com.
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