Legume processing – An overview

Slides presented during " The Diversity of end uses for Legumes"

Webinar 4: European legumes in transition 27th April 2021

"Legume processing – An overview"

Since the main criteria for farmers to grow legumes are price and existing markets, it is essential to widen the product portfolio to assure the future of an augmented legume cultivation by expanding and diversifying the markets. This requires improved technological processes in the food sector. To establish a status quo in this respect, as part of the LegValue project, the ILU presented techniques that are currently used in the processing of legumes within the food sector as well as a comparison of different approaches on that field in the EU. When using legumes in human nutrition, it is essential to consider nutritional and toxicological aspects. In the traditional processing for legume-based food preparation, all steps are carried out to ensure that produced food is ultimately digestible for the human organism, i.e., largely free of anti-nutritional factors (ANF). And even today, through modern procedures, the original physical processes but also biotechnological processes are used to achieve just that: A digestible and nutrition-rich food for humans.

Presented by : Kathleen Zocher - Institute for Food and Environmental Research e.V., Germany