Researchers have said Brits should eat bread made with broad beans as it provides key nutrients and a more sustainable option.
According to reporting by The Guardian, scientists at the University of Reading claim using flour made from broad beans could make a big impact on the UK food sector, improving the nutrition of bread and limiting an impact to the environment.
Broad beans, also known as fava beans, are high in iron, fibre, protein and nutrients, however are not used in cooking as often as they could be due to Brits lacking the experience of preparing or eating food that they’re found in.
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The £2 million government funded ‘Beans in toast’ project also looks to find ways to better grow the produce in the UK, such as breeding varities with high-yielding prospects and working alongside farmers to turn wheat-producing land into broad bean-producing land.
“We had to think laterally: what do most people eat and how can we improve their nutrition without them having to change their diets? The obvious answer is bread,” research leader, Professor Julie Lovegrove told The Guardian.
“96% of people in the UK eat bread, and 90% of that is white bread, which in most cases contains soya.
“We’ve already performed some experiments and found that fava bean flour can directly replace imported soya flour and some of the wheat flour, which is low in nutrients. We can not only grow the fava beans here, but also produce and test the fava bean-rich bread, with improved nutritional quality.”
This comes as Tesco and its suppliers are set to triple the production of fava beans, trialing its use across a variety of product ranges and ingredients.
Described by the leading retailer as a ‘revolutionary crop’, it is believed that by introducing fava beans into a traditional five-year crop rotation on farms, there could be a fivefold increase in the amount produced, with a potential three million tonnes grown per year.
