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Pulses, a source of vegetable protein, are under-consumed and under-produced. JACK aims to enhance their value from the plate to the farm with a gastronomic approach, and thus to modify dietary behavior, create innovative recipes with low-impact processing, identify the sensory and physico-chemical factors of their culinarity, screen the culinarity of species and varieties, link agronomic and pedo-climatic factors to the quality of the seeds, and develop an environmental evaluation of production and processing. The final objective is to add value to pulses through diversification, with a positive environmental impact.

The functional benefits of pulses are not well known and their diversity is not well studied. French gastronomic chefs are used to magnify raw products but rarely pulses. The gastronomic approach can change eating behavior.

JACK aims to identify action levers for a sustainable change in dietary behavior, measure the link between the quality of pulses and their culinary functionalities by identifying physico-chemical variables, identify agronomic and varietal factors influencing culinary quality, quantify the environmental impact of production and processing, to maintain environmental benefits throughout the processing chain.

The project will start with both the creation of innovative recipes by chefs and the collection of a wide variety of field samples of pulses with a known technical itinerary. The recipes will be simplified into model foods, used for culinarity assessment, and in parallel developed and industrialized. New ingredient and product concepts will be developed with chefs and consumers. Several behavioral change factors will be tested in cohorts.

The culinary, sensory, functional properties and environmental impacts of a variety of pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas) will be evaluated and linked to physico-chemical properties. JACK will identify the agronomic determinants and the main factors involved in the construction of quality and yield.

The JACK project, led by the Grappe laboratory of the ESA in Angers, brings together scientists and professionals from the entire sector (a total of 2 laboratories and 14 companies and technical centers) with skills in agronomy, food science, environmental assessment, gastronomy and consumer science. The BIA unit (BIBS, ISD, MC2 and PVPP teams) coordinates work package 2 on food science and will host a thesis and a post-doc.

The 16 partners of the project:

A project financed by a grant managed by the National Research Agency under France 2030