Milling & Baking News - November 11, 2014 - 27

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and pea starch, she said. For this reason
pulse flours are more economical since
less processing equals less cost as well
as the added benefit of a cleaner label
and a more environmentally friendly
product.
Best Cooking Pulses, a familyowned business, was established in
1936, first primarily serving as a commodity seller of peas. The company
became involved in pea fiber about
25 years ago. Pulse flour offerings followed, Ms. Hughes said.
"Pulse flours have come to the fore
in the last five years with significant increases in sales year on year,"
she said.
The ability of AGT Food and Ingredients, Inc., Regina, Sask., to promote
pulse flours has risen this year.
Ingredion, Inc., Westchester, Ill.,
became the exclusive distributor of
pulse flours, protein and bran ingredients from AGT Food and Ingredients
through an agreement reached in June.
It covers consumer foods and ingredient segments and the geographic areas
of the United States, Canada, China
the Middle East and North Africa.
"We are excited for the prospects
of our alliance with Ingredion," said

Murad Al-Katib, chief executive officer and president of AGT, when the
announcement was made in June.
"The application expertise, distribution, reach and global commercialization success of Ingredion is certainly
well known in the specialty ingredients market around the world. We
believe the specialized go-to-market
approach and the focus on innovation and product development of
Ingredion will complement AGT's
global leadership in sourcing and
processing pulses, allowing us an increased and added value offering to
our customers."
Mehmet Tulbek, director of research
and development in the innovation
division for AGT, spoke about pulse
flours during a session June 24 at the
Institute of Food Technologists' annual meeting in New Orleans.
Pulse flours may assist in establishing structure and network in glutenfree pasta while achieving levels of
18 grams of protein and 14 grams of
dietary fiber per 100 grams of pasta, he
said. Pulse flours may provide the nutritional attributes of protein, dietary
fiber and micronutrients along with
the functional properties of expansion

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and texturizing in breakfast cereals
and extruded snacks. In gluten-free
crackers, pulse flours may provide
protein, dietary fiber and micronutrients along with the functional properties of expansion, binding, texturizing
and gel formation.
Dan Best, president of BestVantage, Inc., Lincolnshire, Ill., spoke at
the same I.F.T. session. He gave pulse
flours as examples of functional flours.
He proposed to define functional
flours as "grain and non-grain flours
modified to enhance the tangible values of their individual components
to the consumer, through breeding,
blending and/or further processing."
Playing the percentages
Pulse flour inclusions will take
work. Unlike wheat flours, legume
flours, which encompass pulse
flours, produce no gluten when
mixed with liquid, according to
the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council,
Moscow, Idaho. Legume flours thus
require special treatment when they
are formed into workable dough or
batter that will rise, hold its shape
and deliver a desired texture. Functional properties to consider include

Pulse crops fit into sustainability efforts

ulse crops come with sustainability benefits, such as their low
use of water and fertilizers.
When explaining their choice of 2016 as the "International Year of the Pulses," the United Nations pointed out pulse crops
have nitrogen-fixing properties that have been shown to contribute to increasing soil fertility.
Greenhouse gas emissions are lower among pulse crops, too,
according to a 2011 report from the Environmental Working Group
that expressed the lifecycle total of greenhouse gas emissions
from protein foods and vegetables as kilograms of carbon dioxide
equivalents per kilogram of consumed product. Lentils, a pulse,
registered 0.9 kilograms, and dry beans, another pulse, came in at
2.0 kilograms. Other food products included rice (2.7 kilograms),
potatoes (2.9), eggs (4.8), beef (27.0) and lamb (39.2).
Pulses use half the non-renewable energy inputs (fertilizer) of
some other crop, said Margaret Hughes, in sales and marketing for
Best Cooking Pulses, Inc., Portage la Prairie, Man. They also require
less water. Pulses play a vital role in crop rotation, extracting nitrogen from the air into nodes on their roots, which are then left in
the soil to provide nutrition for the following year's crop, she said.
Pulse crops also produce compounds that nourish soil microbes
and benefit soil health.
Pulse crops use less non-renewable energy relative to other
crops such as winter wheat, spring wheat and flax, said Mehmet

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Pulse crops are field-dried. Pulses are light and economical
to ship.

Tulbek, director of research and development in the innovation
division for AGT Food and Ingredients, during a session June 24
at the Institute of Food Technologists' annual meeting in New Orleans. He said while it takes 48 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of
pulses, it takes 1,857 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of beef. MBN

Milling & Baking News November 11, 2014 / 27

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Milling & Baking News - November 11, 2014

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