Bioactivity of fermented lentils in dairy products

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Lentil is a very important pulse crop in Western Canada, especially in SK with production of 960,000 ha (2.4 million ac.) lentils. Saskatchewan produces around 70% of the country's pulses and exports $350 million yearly. AGT Food and Ingredients is one of the largest suppliers of value-added pulses ingredients in the world. Production from AGT Food represents nearly 45% of the global market, making them the dominant market exporter in pulses. This research aims to promote the growth, sustainability and economic opportunities for lentils grown by AGT in SK. Our focus will be on using "wrinkled lentils" in order to add value to the end-use poor quality lentils. We will use AGT Food existing ingredients in order to carry out research aimed at producing innovative lentil beverages containing dietary fibre and prebiotics. To date, research has not been undertaken on the prebiotic activity of wrinkled lentils in kefir. Green and red lentils (Lens culinaris L.) contain bioactive polysaccharides that could be used as source of prebiotics in fermented dairy products including kefir (beverage). "Wrinkled lentils" have reported to reduce milling efficiency and thus affect its market value. Fermentation is a practical route to use wrinkled lentils as alternative ingredients in dairy products and will also help solubility and digestion and improve health and wellness. Fermentation of dietary fiber can act as a carrier of dietary key minerals (e.g. Ca and P) and vitamins (e.g. Vitamins D and K), enhancing their solubility and has shown to carry dietary antioxidants and thus increasing the levels of antioxidant activity. This proposal will open new opportunities for diversification and total use of wrinkled AGT Food lentils, thereby eliminating waste and adding value. It will help to open job opportunities.