Traditional and New Food Uses of Pulses

Abstract

The global production of pulses, such as various peas, beans, lupines, and lentils, is about 77 million metric tons. Pulses are diverse in their traditional food uses in Asia, Africa, and America, where they have been used, for example, in soups, spreads, meal components, snacks, and breakfast items. Having high protein content (about 20–40%), pulses have recently gained interest when alternative sustainable protein sources are considered. Pulses have been used for protein enrichment in pasta and bread, and they also are suitable ingredients in gluten‐free foods. Wet and dry fractionation methods as well as bioprocessing such as germination and fermentation provide useful tools for development of new functional pulse ingredients. The use of pulses is bound to increase in the future, and especially in combination with cereal raw materials they may find new applications meeting both sensory and nutritional needs of consumers on all continents.