This article appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of Pulse Crop News.

Pulse Canada

Pulse Brand Opportunities

Food manufacturers are looking for new ingredients that will help meet consumer demand for alternative protein, fibre and clean labels, while offering added nutrition and health benefits. Pulses can help to meet these targets.

Pulse industry members from the United States and Canada officially launched the Global Pulse Brand for North America in Chicago during the International Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo on July 18.

To use the Pulse Brand on product packaging, a pulse ingredient must be within the top five ingredients by weight and no less than five per cent of the formulation. The Pulse Brand logo is applied to products that contain enough pulse ingredients to add nutritional value to the product. This requirement protects the value of the brand by ensuring that the branded products are aligned with the brand promise of health, nutrition and sustainability.

The Pulse Brand is available to all types of products from 25 kg poly bags of dried pulses to consumer packaged goods in grocery stores. Pulses.org is host to more information about the Pulse Brand, the Pulse Brand User Guide, information sheets, and an online registration system.

Community Food Centres Canada Partnership

The Canadian International Year of Pulses (IYP) Committee has teamed up with Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC) to help integrate pulses into community kitchens, food banks and after-school cooking programs across Canada. CFCC works in low-income communities to increase access to healthy foods such as pulses, build food skills, and provide education and engagement opportunities.

With the help of CFCC participants, the Canadian pulse industry produced a series of simple and nutritious recipes containing pulses that are tailored toward Canadians who face barriers in accessing healthy food that may include financial resources, knowledge and time. The recipes are being utilized in CFCC’s FoodFit program, which teaches participants healthy eating and fitness skills.

During the month of June, community kitchens and cooking programs across Canada participated in CFCC’s  Act on ImPULSE recipe challenge. Participants were asked to cook pulse dishes and share photos of their creations through social media. Entries poured in from Vancouver, Halifax, Winnipeg, Toronto and other Canadian cities.

The prize for the most mouth-watering dish went to NorWest Co-op Food Centre in Winnipeg for their Split Pea Soup with Tamarind Sauce. The Local Community Food Centre in Stratford won the prize for the most creative dish with their Coconut and Lentil Pudding. The Lentil-Walnut Taco submitted by Gordon Neighborhood House in Vancouver won the prize for most colourful dish.

On October 16, Eat Pulses!

Save the date! October 16 is World Food Day. Each year on this day, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlights the importance of alleviating global hunger and malnutrition.

This year, the FAO is focusing on a major issue in the battle for global food security – climate change. Rising temperatures and environmental disasters occurring as a result of climate change are most strongly felt by the world’s poor in the least developed countries – many of whom are subsistence farmers. The effects of climate change challenge these farmers’ abilities to produce their own food.

World Food Day 2016 will focus on the importance of mitigating climate change through worldwide adoption of more sustainable food production and consumption practices. Pulses play a big role in this work. They’re nutritious, good for the environment and lend themselves well to sustainable cropping systems. The FAO recommends eating pulses as a way that individuals can reduce their environmental footprint.

Pulses have a low carbon footprint, require less water than other sources of protein and enrich the soil where they are grown – all features that can help slow the impacts of climate change. Pulses are also resilient to many of the existing consequences of climate change. They’re well-suited to be grown in drought-prone areas and can be grown in most global climates – in wet or dry, cold or hot regions of the world.

Pulses are also high in protein, fibre, and many essential vitamins and minerals like iron, potassium and folate. Since they can be grown in a variety of climates all around the world, they’re extremely valuable to the diets of millions of people as an affordable source of nutrition.

Increasing public awareness about the nutritional and environmental benefits of pulses has been a major focus of the International Year of Pulses (IYP). IYP has demonstrated the contribution that these small seeds can make toward healthy people and a healthy planet and this message will be carried on through World Food Day 2016.

As a world leader in pulse production and exports, Canada has a major role to play in protecting the environment and sustaining the world’s growing population in the face of climate change.

For more information on World Food Day, visit the FAO’s website.