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Feature
Stories
Research gets underway to
develop new snack foods from pulse
crops
ARDI
at Rural Forum
Canola Digest features
ARDI-funded research
A recent issue of Canola
Digest explored ARDI-funded research into battling the cabbage root
maggot. Yield losses due to these legless, headless maggots can cost
prairie canola growers $100 million in a single year. Dr. Neil
Holliday and his research team from the Department of Entomology at
the University of Manitoba have turned to a
natural European enemy of the root maggot -- a parasitic beetle --
for help. Read
more about Dr. Holliday's search for a biological control of the
cabbage root maggot.
Improving fusarium
resistance in barley
ARDI recently announced
$165,000 over three years to accelerate the development of
fusarium-resistant barley varieties and increase testing for
deoxynivalenol (DON), the most prevalent toxin associated with
fusarium head blight. When DON levels are unacceptably high, barley
cannot be used for malting and brewing, food consumption, or animal
feed.
Project leader Dr. Bill Legge, with the
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre in Brandon, says
the development and release of barley varieties with improved
fusarium head blight resistance is expected within the next five
years in most classes of barley.
ARDI-funded oat
research
Five ARDI-funded research
projects relating to oat are currently in progress. Scientists at
Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada are
leading these projects, with the exception of the superheated steam
processing project out of the University of Manitoba. Here's a quick
synopsis:
- Understanding
and Evaluating the Impact of Fusarium Head Blight of Oat in
Manitoba
$123,000
- Identification
of New Effective Forms of Crown Rust Resistance in Oat and
Pyramiding Them to Provide Stable Resistance to the Disease
$145,080
- Superheated
Steam Processing of Oat Groats
$33,000
- Leaf
Spots of Oat: An Emerging Challenge to Oat Production in
Manitoba in the 2000s
$139,500
- Maximizing
Oat Industry Potential in Manitoba
$59,800
In total, ARDI has put
more than $700,000 towards research projects relating to
oats.
Catching Pocket
Gophers
The northern pocket
gopher is more than a nuisance -- just look at what their burrowing
and feeding activities can do:
- reduce
forage yield and stand life
- increase
soil degradation and erosion
- increase
costs due to machinery breakdown and repairs
- slow
the speed and efficiency of forage harvesting due to the roughness
of the fields
An ARDI-funded study
examined the effectiveness of female-scented traps in increasing
trapping success during the later period of the reproduction season.
The study also looked at whether certain types of baits have the
potential to improve trapping efficiency.
The final
report has now been posted on ARDI's website. If you've got
gophers in your fields, you'll want to read the results.
Want to subscribe to the
newsletter or comment on anything you’ve read
here?
Please
contact ARDI’s Communications Coordinator,
Rhea
Yates, at rheayates@mts.net
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ARDI announces $135,000
to develop new foods from pulse
crops
ARDI
Vice-Chair Lorne Hamblin announces support for new pulse crop
research at the Canadian International Grains Institute's pulse
processing facility.
Creating new snack foods
from pulse crops is the goal of new research getting underway at the
University of Manitoba and the Canadian
International Grains Institute. A team of researchers led by
Dr.
Susan Arntfield, of the U of M's
Department of Food Science, will explore technologies such as
steaming, roasting and micronization (an intensive heat treatment
that reduces cooking times for pulse crops such as beans) to develop
new snack foods from peas and beans.
ARDI is putting $135,300
over two years into the project, while the Saskatchewan Pulse
Growers are contributing $141,450 over the same period. "Dr.
Arntfields' research to develop healthy new food products from peas
and beans taps into a consumer desire to eat and live well," said
ARDI Vice-Chair Lorne
Hamblin at a news conference April 19th
announcing support for the project. "Developing new products in
response to consumer demand is one way to position Manitoba
farmers to receive a stable price for their product in the
future."
Dr. Arntfield also
stressed that adding value to pulse crops is becoming an
increasingly important part of the industry. Her research team has
chosen to look at using the whole seed
as well as the flour and
hulls obtained from the whole seed.
 Dr. Arntfield
(at
left) says the key issue limiting whole seed
pulse snacks is their capacity to absorb water and be processed into
a product with the appropriate texture. "Our whole seed research has
two objectives," she said. "First, we want to better understand the
mechanisms of hydration so that we can increase hydration rates and
hydration capacities. Second, we're using novel technologies such as
micronization and superheated steam to produce snacks with the
desired texture."
The other area of
research will draw on the Canadian International Grains
Institute's Pulse Processing and Specialty Milling
Facility to provide pulse flour and
separate hulls. Potential final products include tacos, tortillas
and extruded snacks similar to cheese puffs. The project is truly
collaborative, as Arntfield made clear. In addition to CIGI,
Arntfield and her research team have drawn upon the expertise of
staff at the University of
Saskatchewan's
Crop Development
Centre in Saskatoon, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's
Morden Research Centre, and Manitoba Agriculture, Food
and Rural
Initiatives.
Recent research suggests
that some pulse crops are very high in antioxidants. As a result,
Dr. Arntfield will be measuring antioxidant capacity in both the raw
product and the finished materials in order to promote any potential
health benefits from the new snacks.
For more information, see
the ARDI
news release and a complete list of pulse
projects supported by ARDI.
ARDI
grants spark economic development
In the growth of start-up
companies, an early hurdle is often how to bring products from ideas
to production. An investment in research can often provide the
answer, but few start-ups have the cash to dedicate to such
research. It's at this stage where ARDI makes a good fit with
business development in Manitoba, says Program Officer
Lori-Ann Kaminski.
 ARDI participated in
Rural Forum in Brandon in late April to highlight
ways that the program can contribute. "Rural Forum was an
opportunity for me to spread the word about how ARDI can assist
Manitoba entrepreneurs in areas of
research and development," says Kaminski (left). "An ARDI
grant early in the life of a business is sometimes the kickstart
that leads to much bigger things."
The story of Jason
Wortzman is a prime example. In 2000, Wortzman was the head of
Wortzman Specialty Foods when he received an ARDI grant to research
quality questions related to smoked cheese. His success in working
with the Department of Food Science at the University of Manitoba was noticed by Bothwell Cheese, a
rural Manitoba company recently profiled
in the Winnipeg Free Press. The knowledge Wortzman gained with the
help of an ARDI grant is now being used to make award-winning smoked
cheese for Bothwell Cheese, one of the few cheese-making companies
in western Canada.
Rural Forum also
showcased the success of past recipients of ARDI grants, including
the following exhibitors:
For more information about ARDI
funding
criteria, contact Lori-Ann at lkaminski@gov.mb.ca |
