MISSION: IMPULSEIBLE 2015

Canadian students showcase the exciting potential of pulses in foods products

The Next Pulse & Special Crops Convention 2015 in Calgary next June 21-23 will have a special event that will highlight the potential of pulses in new products formulation.  

Canadian students will have the opportunity to showcase their creations to help present pulses (peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas) as innovative food products and build awareness of the International Year of Pulses. Products should be “chef inspired”, convenient to eat and MUST showcase one or more Canadian pulses.

The students have presented extraordinary and creative products in the past years, and this 2015 seems like it won’t be different. Proposals include pulse wraps; a cake made with garbanzo and fava bean flour, pea protein and pea fibre, and “frosting” made with pea fiber; frozen appetizer made with fermented lentils and chickpeas, and many more.

On Tuesday June 23 from 8:30 - 10 a.m. come see and taste these delicious pulse creations made by Canadian post-secondary students. You can help crown one of them a national champion.

The Pulse & Special Crops Convention brings together pulse and special crops processors and exporters, service providers and buyers from around the world. In 2015, the conference theme is “It’s Our Time”. More information here: http://www.cvent.com/events/pulse-special-crops-convention-2015/event-summary-a41b34bcc333444fbeccb1c04bba82ac.aspx 

June 8, 2015 – DUBAI –The Global Pulse Confederation (GPC) is delighted to announce that Bush Brothers & Company will be the lead sponsor for the Sackler Institute of Nutritional Sciences Scientific Symposium on Pulse Health and Nutrition at the New York Academy of Sciences, one of the signature events of the 2016 International Year of Pulses (IYP 2016).

Beans, peas, lentils, and chickpeas together comprise the category of food known as “pulses.” The General Assembly of the United Nations has declared the year 2016 as The International Year of Pulses. The Global Pulse Confederation, including farmers, traders, and food processors of pulse crops, is organizing a wide range of global events and projects that will focus on the role that pulses can play in addressing some of the greatest challenges that we face today. Nutrition and food security, agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability, as well as pulse market-access issues are some of the thematic areas that will be addressed in IYP activities during 2016, led by an international committee whose members are volunteering their time and resources to organize IYP projects, events and conferences.

“Beans and other pulses have been staple foods featured in the diets of ancient civilizations for over 10,000 years” said Tom Ferriter, Chief Executive Officer of Bush Brothers and Company. “As today’s consumers increasingly seek sustainable diets that offer maximum nutritional benefit, the International Year of Pulses, and the Symposium on Pulses that will be held at the Sackler Institute, provide opportunities to remind people about the wonderful properties of beans and other pulses, and their role in meeting the global nutritional and agricultural challenges of our time.”

The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Sciences at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) will host a major scientific conference on November 19, 2015. Scientists and researchers, health experts, governmental representatives, and international agro-food experts from all over the world will gather to learn about the latest research on the benefits of beans and other pulses and set a new global agenda for pulse nutrition. (http://www.iyp2016.org/events/event/14-scientific-symposium-on-pulse-health-and-nutrition

Bush Brothers will be the main sponsor of the Scientific Symposium. The Global Pulse Confederation, Pulse Canada, and the American Pulse Association will serve as supporting sponsors.

“We are thrilled to have Bush Brothers & Company on board for such an important conference, which will provide scientific background to what we know about pulses.” says Hakan Bahceci, Chairman of GPC's IYP Oversight Committee. “Our ancestors knew about their benefits in the past, and that is a powerful reason to consider them as the food of the future.”

Contact for further information: Gavin Gibson, Executive Director Global Pulse Confederation: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Paulina Ceballos, Global Pulse Confederation Secretariat for International Year of Pulses activities, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About Bush Brothers & Company

For over 100 years, Bush Brothers & Company has been an innovator and leader in delivering consistent taste and quality products using only the finest ingredients. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee and distributed through North America, the company is best known for its Baked Beans-- slow-cooked according to a Secret Family Recipe, the bold flavors of its Grillin’ Beans®, and its range of culinary beans that are featured in delicious salads, dips, soups, or bowls of chili.

About GPC

The Global Pulse Confederation is the not for profit peak body for the whole global pulses industry value chain. As the sole international confederation for the industry it enjoys membership from 18 national associations (federations) and over 600 private sector members in an industry worth over $100 Billion at the retail level and over 60 million tonnes in pulse production and distribution in over 55 countries.

International Year of Pulses in UK

By Andrew Jacobs, UK National Promotion group

On June 2nd, the UK IYP National Promotion group had a trial tasting of the menu for our Jan 6th 2016 IYP Launch event which will be held at our chosen venue, The Gate Vegetarian Restaurant in trendy Islington, London (www.thegaterestaurants.com).  The Gate are partnering with us for UK launch event, having agreed to provide food, drink and staff at cost; they recognise it is in their self-interest to host such a prestigious food event.  We will invite 150 stakeholders, focusing on food writers, nutrition and lifestyle journalists, retailers and pulse industry participants.  Our goal is to create an excitement and buzz about how fabulous pulses can taste when prepared with flair and imagination.  Whilst we have the focused attention of our guests, we will be plugging IYP events, our Teacher’s Toolkit, pop-up Falafel Street Food Festival May 2016, and pathways for the guests to get engaged with IYP.

The Gate designed various options for our stand-up finger food & bowl food reception.  We had the pleasure of tasting all the dishes from which we had to narrow down from 12 dishes to a final 8.  Especially enjoyable was the Jalepino Margarita with tequila infused Pinto Beans.  However well the menu reads (see below) the tastes were even better; we came with high expectations from just reading the proposed menu, but our expectations were surpassed.  Our problem was which dishes to cut; but after long deliberation and another cocktail, we made the harsh decision what not to enjoy on the big night.  I took some photos with my iPhone but they don’t do the presentation justice.  We are getting quotes for issuing a recipe card of all the dishes to go out with our “Save the Date” notification, aimed at exciting the journalists & retailers to make sure they put Jan 6th 2016 in their diaries.  We know recipe writers have already finished planning Xmas dishes to be featured in their various journals.  They will soon be turning their attention to healthy dishes to accompany New Year’s resolutions to eat better.  Which is exactly where IYP and our UK launch menu comes to their aid……  Here is our chosen menu:

1: Drinks Reception

                    Jalepino Margartia with tequila infused Pinto Beans

                    Kir Royal with Shooting Lentils  (Cava with Crème de Casis)

                    House wine, fresh juices, still & sparkling water

2.1  Mezze food: a selection of 4 Mezze served for an hour

                    Egyptian Faba bean and chickpea falafel with schoog  

                    Indian Aduki bean malai koftas with tzatziki

                    American Red Kidney bean mini burgers                     

                    Vietnamese rolls with sprouted pulses with avocado and mango with a soya and lime dip

2.3  Bowl food: a selection of 4 served over a period of 2 hours

                    Turkish Mercimek Corbasi - red lentil soup with tomato and olive oil

                    Indonesian Plantain and beluga lentil fritters with green mango and coriander chutney

                    Mexican Tostada with refried black beans and served with guacamole and sour cream

                    Chinese Crispy won ton basket with sprouted Mungbeans, bean curd in miso dressing

It is exciting that we are now moving from the planning and talking phase to the delivery phase, now we have our Global Pulse brand, soon we’ll have our consumer website to share, the Teachers’ Toolkit is going through final design, we are getting tangible results from our months, sometimes years, of work.

 I hope this whets your appetite and inspires you to organise your National Launch event on Jan 6th, 2016   We should work to have rolling events starting in Australia, then Japan, China, Pakistan, India, Ethiopia, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Norway, UK, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia,  Mexico, Canada & USA  Add your country to the list?

 

The Global Pulse Confederation is pleased to announce that our outgoing President, Mr Hakan Bahceci, has graciously accepted to be our nominee to represent the GPC in the UN International Year of Pulses Steering Committee (IYP-SC). Hakan has been playing a key role for the pulse industry advocating for the announcement of the IYP since 2013. He has counted on the full support of our organization since the beginning of the process. The GPC is further pleased to announce Gordon Bacon, CEO of Pulse Canada, as Hakan’s alternate in the Committee.

The IYP-SC will be managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which has been nominated to facilitate the implementation of the Year in collaboration with Governments, research,civil society, private sector, non-governmental organizations and all other relevant stakeholders. The Year will be officially launched on November 10 in Rome, where GPC's representatives will be present to kick start the celebrations for the Year. 

Read the announcement letter here.