This article appeared in the Summer 2015 issue of Pulse Crop News.

A tiny tart packing a nutritious punch with pulses allowed a trio of University of Alberta Nutrition and Food Science students to declare their mission accomplished, at least until the national competition.

Andrea Roman, Kaixing Tang and Minghua Yu won first place at the 7th annual Alberta MISSION: IMPULSEIBLE product development competition with the Peamon Tart, which secured them a spot at the national competition in June.

“We were really excited about winning because we had so much fun participating and creating our product,” Roman said, adding that she drew inspiration from working with pulse crops last summer. “Participating in MISSION: IMPULSEIBLE was a great platform for us to learn more about the versatility of pulses and product development.”

The Alberta Pulse Growers’ MISSION: IMPULSEIBLE is a food product development contest for post-secondary students. The mission for the 2015 contest was to create an innovative food product to help present pulses to the world and build awareness of the 2016 International Year of Pulses.

The team created the dessert with a tart shell made from a mixture of canned, red kidney beans, chickpeas, Romano beans and great northern white beans. They substituted the eggs in the lemon filling with a protein substitute that the team developed from pea protein. They called the egg substitute Peggs, and it generated a lot of interest from the 50 or so food enthusiasts and promoters who attended the provincial competition at Ernest’s Dining Room at NAIT in March.

In addition to a monetary prize of $1,500, the team won the opportunity to work with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Food Processing Development Centre in Leduc to scale up their product for the national competition to take place on June 23 at the Pulse and Special Crops Convention in Calgary.

“With regard to the formulation, we are still working on optimizing the taste and texture,” Roman said of the team’s effort to scale up the Peamon Tart. “We also have some new ideas regarding packaging and some creative new changes to our product that we think will make a good surprise for the national competition.”

Troy Sturzenegger is a Food Scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry and has been working with the trio to upscale the Peamon Tart for the national event, including developing a tart with a different flavoured filling for different markets.

“It’s great to see new ideas coming out,” said Sturzenegger, who has worked with the winners of the last three Alberta MISSION: IMPULSEIBLE competitions. “The goal is to produce a great product that will be commercially viable in the future.”

The winners of regional competitions across the country will compete for prizes including a top prize of $2,500 at nationals.

“We are looking forward to meeting other groups and trying some of their delicious creations for the national competition,” Roman added. “We have seen some of the products on the MISSION: IMPULSEIBLE website and they look so interesting and delicious. Overall, we are very excited to continue to experiment and perfect our product and hope (the national judges) will love it as much as we do.”

APG’s Food and Nutrition Coordinator, Debra McLennan, was excited about all of the student products entered in the provincial contest.

“They all tasted great,” she said. “It boiled down to not only what the judges thought, but also what the audience enjoyed the most. The Peamon Tart was a tasty treat. It was quite innovative and something we haven’t really seen in the market to date. I’m hoping that Alberta can bring home the national win again. I think we have good chance because the Peamon Tart team has a good presentation and is very personable with a great product that is gluten-free and egg-free.”

Second place in the provincial competition and a $1,000 prize went to the U of A’s Min Lin, Cheng Shi, Shihao Wei and Stephanie Nash with the Chickpea Nugget, which is a pulse-based nugget made from chickpeas. Judges and audience voting put Chau Chin Yo, Teresa Leong, Carmen Dam and Judy Kimotho (also from the U of A) in third place with a $500 prize for the Pulscotti Spread, which is a glutenfree, nut-free and dairy-free cookie butter made from chickpea flour.

Judges for this year’s Alberta competition were: Marilynn Boehm of the Alberta Food Processors Association; Kevin Johnson from Freson Bros.; Registered Dietitian Katherine Ng; and Jay Han from the Food Processing Development Centre.

MISSION: IMPULSEIBLE was made possible by financial support from the Alberta Pulse Growers and Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, as well as partnerships with the Food Processing Development Centre, Pulse Canada, and NAIT Culinary Arts program.

In 2014, Alberta’s provincial winner went on to win the national competition with their frozen Pulse Pop, which is composed of chickpeas, pea butter and soy nuts wrapped with black bean and cacao, then rolled in chocolate and coconut.

Alberta post-secondary students interested in competing in Alberta’s next MISSION: IMPULSEIBLE are invited to email McLennan for information at debramc@pulse.ab.ca.