A Canadian Food Inspection Agency designation should add regularity to the sales of a Manitoba pea fibre manufacturer.
Best Cooking Pulses Inc. has received the green light to sell its Best Pea Fibre to Canadian bakeries and meat processors.
For 10 years the Portage la Prairie manufacturer had been limited to selling its product in Europe and the United States.
Now that its yellow pea fibre has been included on the CFIA’s Guide to Food Labelling and Advertising, Best Cooking Pulses is hoping to cultivate markets closer to home.
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“The day of the CFIA announcement we received a flurry of inquiries from Canadian companies wanting to produce high fibre bakery products,” said sales and marketing manager Margaret Hughes.
“They wanted a fibre that was functional, economical and that could be used to make dietary fibre claims.”
Proving to Health Canada that ground pea hulls are a safe and nutritional product was an expensive and arduous two-year process, but at least Best Cooking Pulses didn’t have to start from scratch.
The company was able to prove that its product was equivalent to other fibres on CFIA’s list, which reduced the time and cost of the process.
The company also received a $10,000 grant from the Agri-Food Research Development Initiative and considerable help from Manitoba’s Food Development Centre in Portage la Prairie in preparing the necessary research and documentation.
“This is a Canadian family company with over 70 years experience in splitting peas and exploring potential uses for the leftover hulls, which were originally regarded as waste,” said Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk.
“We’re proud to play a supporting role in the future growth of Best Cooking Pulses.”
Hughes said the company uses hulls from its pea splitting plant in Rowatt, Sask., as well as other western Canadian splitting operations. The hulls are ground into a highly absorptive, bland fibre that is put through a chemical-free sanitizing process to make it suitable for human consumption.
She wouldn’t divulge how much the product will cost but said it will be competitive with other pea fibre plants in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The product will primarily be used by bakers to add fibre to bread, cake, cookies and pasta, but Hughes said it can also be used in sausages and other meat products in place of other binders and fillers.
Pea fibre lowers cholesterol levels, assists in the management of type 2 diabetes, improves intestinal health and contains an amino acid that is often deficient in vegetarian diets.
Wendy Dahl, co-ordinator of nutrition and dietetic practice with the Saskatoon Health Region, said the product is ideally suited for the diets of seniors in care facilities.
Recommended daily fibre intake for seniors is 21 to 30 grams, but residents in nursing homes are get only an average of 10 grams a day.
