Legume dreams: The contested futures of sustainable plant-based food systems in Europe

Purification and Characterization of Proteinaceous Thermostable α-Amylase Inhibitor from Sardinian Common Bean Nieddone Cultivar (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

The increasing need for new treatments for obesity and diabetes has led to the development of new drugs and food supplements that could reduce carbohydrate absorption. Many starch blockers, based on common bean proteinaceous inhibitors against α-amylase (α-AI), are already present on the market. The extraction and purification of α-amylase inhibitor from a promising common bean cultivar from Sardinia (Nieddone) is described, highlighting the unique value of the Nieddone cultivar, particularly for its inhibitory activity on digestive enzymes and its complete lack of a hemagglutination effect on human red blood cells. The purification of α-AI involved two chromatographic steps (IEC and SEC) and was essential for revealing certain properties of the inhibitor. The purified inhibitor has a tetrameric structure (α2β2) and a molecular weight of approximately 42 kDa, as determined by SEC and SDS-PAGE, confirming it as a lectin-like inhibitor. The identification of the α-AI sequence was obtained by bottom-up high-resolution mass spectrometry, which allowed us to identify a unique peptide from the α chain and six unique peptides from the β chains. α-AI exhibited an optimum temperature of around 40 °C and two pH optima at 5 and 6.5, respectively. Its remarkable stability at high temperatures was measured (approximately 25% of activity retained even after 5 h at 100 °C), whereas the raw extract lost its activity entirely after just 10 min at 90 °C. Thus, the purification process significantly enhances the thermal stability of α-AI. The demonstrated effectiveness of the purified α-AI against the α-amylase enzyme in pigs, humans and insects underscores the protein's potential for treating obesity and diabetes, as well as for managing insect pests.

Dataset on biodiversity and agronomic performance of lentil and chickpea field trials in the Mediterranean Region

Pulse crops have become more important in food production and consumption systems for the transition towards sustainability. We present an agroecological dataset from 304 samples from 12 legume field trials in five locations across three countries in the Mediterranean. The field trials were established in the seasons 2021/22 and 2022/23 and tested different lentil or chickpea cultivars, inoculants, intercropping and weeding regimes. The dataset encompasses detailed information on wild flora diversity, grain yield, associated management practices, soil texture and weather during the growing period. Wild flora diversity was recorded by conducting a vegetation survey in 1 × 2 m sample plots. Grain yield was determined at the crop maturity stage, with full plots harvested in Spain, while samples were taken in Croatia and Tunisia. Environmental variables were via laboratory analysis or bottle testing of soil samples and analysis of local weather data. The comprehensiveness of the dataset, including all relevant agroecological information, enables other researchers to employ the dataset for various statistical analyses of agroecosystem processes, such as plant-environment interactions or biodiversity-yield trade-off analysis.

Legumes and common beans in sustainable diets: nutritional quality, environmental benefits, spread and use in food preparations

In recent decades, scarcity of available resources, population growth and the widening in the consumption of processed foods and of animal origin have made the current food system unsustainable. High-income countries have shifted towards food consumption patterns which is causing an increasingly process of environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, with the increased incidence of malnutrition due to excess (obesity and non-communicable disease) and due to chronic food deprivation. An urgent challenge is, therefore, to move towards more healthy and sustainable eating choices and reorientating food production and distribution to obtain a human and planetary health benefit. In this regard, legumes represent a less expensive source of nutrients for low-income countries, and a sustainable healthier option than animal-based proteins in developed countries. Although legumes are the basis of many traditional dishes worldwide, and in recent years they have also been used in the formulation of new food products, their consumption is still scarce. Common beans, which are among the most consumed pulses worldwide, have been the focus of many studies to boost their nutritional properties, to find strategies to facilitate cultivation under biotic/abiotic stress, to increase yield, reduce antinutrients contents and rise the micronutrient level. The versatility of beans could be the key for the increase of their consumption, as it allows to include them in a vast range of food preparations, to create new formulations and to reinvent traditional legume-based recipes with optimal nutritional healthy characteristics.

On Disease Configurations, Black-Grass Blowback, and Probiotic Pest Management

This article explores approaches to managing pests that are being developed in response to the faltering effectiveness of antibiotic regimes of chemical control. It focuses on black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides), an endemic plant in European agriculture that has emerged as a serious yield-robber with increasing levels of herbicidal resistance. Following farmers and agronomists who have developed "integrated" approaches to black-grass management, the article identifies approaches to biosecurity that do not target unwanted life so much as they modulate ecological systems in their entirety. Pathogenesis, in this relational understanding, follows not from breaches of dangerous life into healthy space, but from ecological intra-actions that enable the proliferation of some life to compromise the multispecies livability of the body in question. The article contributes to the literature by detailing how this configurational approach works in the world. It traces the polymorphic spatial imaginaries required to map pests well; the process of knowledge intensification needed to reveal which configurations can resist pathogenesis; and the probiotic biopolitical interventions used to safeguard farmland productivity. The article uses black-grass to present a temporal metanarrative of intensive farming causing ecological blowback, leading to the development of approaches to pest management predicated on a pragmatic tolerance toward unwanted life.

An experimental dataset on yields of pulses across Europe

Future European agriculture should achieve high productivity while limiting its impact on the environment. Legume-supported crop rotations could contribute to these goals, as they request less nitrogen (N) fertilizer inputs, show high resource use efficiency and support biodiversity. However, legumes grown for their grain (pulses) are not widely cultivated in Europe. To further expand their cultivation, it remains crucial to better understand how different cropping and environmental features affect pulses production in Europe. To address this gap, we collected the grain yields of the most cultivated legumes across European countries, from both published scientific papers and unpublished experiments of the European projects LegValue and Legato. Data were integrated into an open-source, easily updatable dataset, including 5229 yield observations for five major pulses: chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), faba bean (Vicia faba L.), field pea (Pisum sativum L.), lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.), and soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). These data were collected in 177 field experiments across 21 countries, from 37° N (southern Italy) to 63° N (Finland) of latitude, and from ca. 8° W (western Spain) to 47° E (Turkey), between 1980 and 2020. Our dataset can be used to quantify the effects of the soil, climate, and agronomic factors affecting pulses yields in Europe and could contribute to identifying the most suitable cropping areas in Europe to grow pulses.

Effect of Adding Pulses to Replace Protein Foods and Refined Grains in Healthy Dietary Patterns

Pulses are dry seeds of legumes which are high in fiber and contain plant protein and several important macronutrients. Our aim was to model the nutritional effects of substituting servings of protein foods and/or refined grains with servings of beans and peas in the Healthy U.S.-Style Pattern identified in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. Dietary modeling was accomplished by substituting nutrients of protein foods and/or refined grains with nutrients of the USDA's beans and peas (pulses) composite in the 2000 kcal Healthy U.S.-Style Pattern. A 10% or more change was used as an indicator of meaningful differences. Cost implications were computed by adding the cost of pulses and subtracting the cost of protein foods/refined grains according to the modeling scenario. The substitution of 6-8 oz/week protein foods with 1.5-2.0 cups/week pulses increased fiber and decreased cholesterol. Higher amounts of pulses replacing refined grains or combinations of protein foods and refined grains generally increase fiber, iron, magnesium, potassium, and copper depending on the modeling scenarios. All modeling scenarios of substituting the servings of protein foods alone or in combination with refined grains with the servings of pulses were associated with cost savings. Our results suggest that encouraging increased pulse consumption may be an effective strategy for improving diet.

Efficiency of RAPD and SCoT Markers in the Genetic Diversity Assessment of the Common Bean

Knowledge about the genetic diversity of the available common bean germplasm can help breeders properly direct the choice of genetic material in the breeding process. The aim of the present work was to estimate the usefulness of 10 RAPD and 10 SCoT markers in genetic diversity detection among 33 common bean genotypes. Both molecular marker systems were able to generate high levels of polymorphism in the genetic material, which was supported by the relatively high polymorphic information content (PIC) values observed for the used markers. The Diversity Detection Index (DDI) and Marker Index (MI) were used to compare the effectiveness of RAPD and SCoT markers. For both techniques, high values of MI and DDI were calculated, representing their effectivity. The SCoT markers showed higher values of the parameters used (MI = 7.474, DI = 2.265) than the RAPD markers (MI = 5.323, DDI = 1.612), indicating their higher efficiency in the detection of molecular variability. Three constructed dendrograms and PCoA plots were created using RAPD and SCoT, and both methods combined confirmed sufficient separation of the bean genotypes from each other. At the same time, a higher efficiency of SCoT markers compared to RAPD markers in the detection of the genetic diversity of beans was also proven. The results may be of future interest in the choice of genetically distant material for breeding purposes.

Non-monetary narratives motivate businesses to engage with climate change

The dominant narrative to motivate business actors to take climate actions emphasizes opportunities to increase monetary gains, linking sustainability to the financial goals of these organizations. The prevalence of monetary motivations in sustainability communication among businesses, consultancies, academics and international organizations has made this narrative a truism in the private sector. We conducted an online, real-world, large-n experiment to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of different motivations using narrative communication. We show that non-monetary narratives highlighting prosocial or achievement motivations are 55% more effective in creating responses from businesses than narratives emphasizing monetary gains. These findings are robust across most narrative and audience characteristics, including age and language. Our findings suggest that communication towards business leaders around sustainability can be multi-pronged and should incorporate prosocial and achievement motivations aside from articulating potential financial benefits.

Leguminous Seedborne Pathogens: Seed Health and Sustainable Crop Management

Pulses have gained popularity over the past few decades due to their use as a source of protein in food and their favorable impact on soil fertility. Despite being essential to modern agriculture, these species face a number of challenges, such as agronomic crop management and threats from plant seed pathogens. This review's goal is to gather information on the distribution, symptomatology, biology, and host range of seedborne pathogens. Important diagnostic techniques are also discussed as a part of a successful process of seed health certification. Additionally, strategies for sustainable control are provided. Altogether, the data collected are suggested as basic criteria to set up a conscious laboratory approach.

Plant-Based Dairy Alternatives-A Future Direction to the Milky Way

One significant food group that is part of our daily diet is the dairy group, and both research and industry are actively involved to meet the increasing requirement for plant-based dairy alternatives (PBDAs). The production tendency of PBDAs is growing with a predictable rate of over 18.5% in 2023 from 7.4% at the moment. A multitude of sources can be used for development such as cereals, pseudocereals, legumes, nuts, and seeds to obtain food products such as vegetal milk, cheese, cream, yogurt, butter, and different sweets, such as ice cream, which have nearly similar nutritional profiles to those of animal-origin products. Increased interest in PBDAs is manifested in groups with special dietary needs (e.g., lactose intolerant individuals, pregnant women, newborns, and the elderly) or with pathologies such as metabolic syndromes, dermatological diseases, and arthritis. In spite of the vast range of production perspectives, certain industrial challenges arise during development, such as processing and preservation technologies. This paper aims at providing an overview of the currently available PBDAs based on recent studies selected from the electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, and Scopus. We found 148 publications regarding PBDAs in correlation with their nutritional and technological aspects, together with the implications in terms of health. Therefore, this review focuses on the relationship between plant-based alternatives for dairy products and the human diet, from the raw material to the final products, including the industrial processes and health-related concerns.

Effect of increasing plant protein intake on protein quality and nutrient intake of US adults

Three cycles of NHANES (2013-2018) were used to assess protein intake, protein quality (protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score; PDCAAS), protein cost, and nutrient intakes across quartiles of plant protein intake (Q1: <28.2%; Q2: 28.2% to <32.1%; Q3: 32.1 to <36.2%; Q4: ≥36.2%) over a 24 h period (≥19 years, n = 14 888). Grains represented the primary source of plant protein across quartiles and increased from 5.01% (Q1) to 13.5% (Q4). Across all the USDA's Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) food groups, grains were the most economical source of protein (24.3-26 g protein/$1). Legumes were the most economical plant-based protein (28-37.7 g protein/$1) within the "Protein Foods" FNDDS group. Absolute protein intake (96.6 g/day) and PDCAAS (0.91) of diets were progressively lower from Q1 to 72.0 g/day and 0.8 in Q4, respectively. Modelling the replacement of 50% of amino acids from grains in the diet with amino acids from legumes increased the PDCAAS by 10% in Q4. Intake levels of fibre, folate, iron, and zinc, were higher in Q2-Q4 compared to Q1 but had lower intakes of vitamins B12 and D. Amino acid complementation is required to effectively integrate higher levels plant protein into US diets.

Legumes or Meat? The Effectiveness of Recommendation Messages towards a Plant-Based Diet Depends on People's Identification with Flexitarians

In the present research, we analyzed how to promote a plant-based diet by involving 428 volunteers in a 2-week mobile app intervention. We compared messages promoting the addition of legumes versus messages promoting the replacement of meat with legumes. Messages were either combined or not combined with dynamic norms (i.e., information that more and more people are enacting the behavior). We compared these messages with a control condition (i.e., no message intervention) and we also analyzed the moderation effect of receivers' identification with flexitarians (i.e., people who occasionally eat animal products) and attitudes towards them. In the short term, addition messages increased legume consumption more than replacement messages, especially in people with a negative evaluation of flexitarians and low identification with them. In the long term, increased legume consumption was recorded only when addition messages were combined with dynamic norms. As for meat consumption, the replacement messages were more effective in reducing it in the short term than in the long term, especially in people with positive attitudes towards flexitarians. However, replacement messages combined with dynamic norms were more effective in the long term than in the short term. These results advance our comprehension of how to tailor dietary messages.

Green rebranding: Regenerative agriculture, future-pasts, and the naturalisation of livestock

Anxieties around the relationship between livestock agriculture and the environmental crisis are driving sustained discussions about the place of beef and dairy farming in a sustainable food system. Proposed solutions range from 'clean-cow' sustainable intensification to 'no-cow', animal free futures, both of which encourage a disruptive break with past practice. This paper reviews the alternative proposition of regenerative agriculture that naturalises beef and dairy production by invoking the past to justify future, nature-based solutions. Drawing on fieldwork in the UK, it first introduces two of the most prominent strands to this green rebranding of cattle: the naturalisation of ruminant methane emissions and the optimisation of soil carbon sequestration via the use of ruminant grazing animals. Subsequent thematic analysis outlines the three political strategies of post-pastoral storytelling, political ecological baselining and a probiotic model of bovine biopolitics that perform this naturalisation. The conclusion assesses the potential and the risks of this approach to grounding the geographies and the temporalities of agricultural transition in the Anthropocene: an epoch in which time is out of joint and natures are multiple and non-analogue, such that they provide slippery and contested grounds for political solutions.

Sustainable plant-based ingredients as wheat flour substitutes in bread making

Bread as a staple food has been predominantly prepared from refined wheat flour. The world’s demand for food is rising with increased bread consumption in developing countries where climate conditions are unsuitable for wheat cultivation. This reliance on wheat increases the vulnerability to wheat supply shocks caused by force majeure or man-made events, in addition to negative environmental and health consequences. In this review, we discuss the contribution to the sustainability of food systems by partially replacing wheat flour with various types of plant ingredients in bread making, also known as composite bread. The sustainable sources of non-wheat flours, their example use in bread making and potential health and nutritional benefits are summarized. Non-wheat flours pose techno-functional challenges due to significantly different properties of their proteins compared to wheat gluten, and they often contain off-favor compounds that altogether limit the consumer acceptability of final bread products. Therefore, we detail recent advances in processing strategies to improve the sensory and nutritional profiles of composite bread. A special focus is laid on fermentation, for its accessibility and versatility to apply to different ingredients and scenarios. Finally, we outline research needs that require the synergism between sustainability science, human nutrition, microbiomics and food science.

Global systematic review with meta-analysis reveals yield advantage of legume-based rotations and its drivers

Diversified cropping systems, especially those including legumes, have been proposed to enhance food production with reduced inputs and environmental impacts. However, the impact of legume pre-crops on main crop yield and its drivers has never been systematically investigated in a global context. Here, we synthesize 11,768 yield observations from 462 field experiments comparing legume-based and non-legume cropping systems and show that legumes enhanced main crop yield by 20%. These yield advantages decline with increasing N fertilizer rates and crop diversity of the main cropping system. The yield benefits are consistent among main crops (e.g., rice, wheat, maize) and evident across pedo-climatic regions. Moreover, greater yield advantages (32% vs. 7%) are observed in low- vs. high-yielding environments, suggesting legumes increase crop production with low inputs (e.g., in Africa or organic agriculture). In conclusion, our study suggests that legume-based rotations offer a critical pathway for enhancing global crop production, especially when integrated into low-input and low-diversity agricultural systems.

Nutritional and Food Composition Survey of Major Pulses Toward Healthy, Sustainable, and Biofortified Diets

The world's food demand is increasing rapidly due to fast population growth that has posed a challenge to meeting the requirements of nutritionally balanced diets. Pulses could play a major role in the human diet to combat these challenges and provide nutritional and physiological benefits. Pulses such as chickpeas, green gram, peas, horse gram, beans, lentils, black gram, etc., are rich sources of protein (190–260 g kg−1), carbohydrates (600–630 g kg−1), dietary fibers, and bioactive compounds. There are many health benefits of phytochemicals present in pulses, like flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, phytates, saponins, lectins, oxalates, phytosterols peptides, and enzyme inhibitors. Some of them have anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcerative, anti-microbial, and anti-cancer effects. Along with these, pulses are also rich in vitamins and minerals. In this review, we highlight the potential role of pulses in global food systems and diets, their nutritional value, health benefits, and prospects for biofortification of major pulses. The food composition databases with respect to pulses, effect of processing techniques, and approaches for improvement of nutritional profile of pulses are elaborated.

Packaged foods with pulse ingredients in Europe: A dataset of text-mined product formulations

There is a lack of methods and tools to reveal robust information on the ingredients used in packaged foods. To tackle this challenge, we developed an original method to parse ingredient lists of packaged foods. We built a dataset of food product innovations with their parsed ingredient lists. We explain the parser algorithm used to provide this dataset; and a benchmark method assessing the performance of the parsing techniques applied on those food ingredient lists. The primary data we used to test and apply this method were retrieved from MINTEL-GNPD. These data cover new food products containing pulse ingredients launched on European markets over the last decade. This work brings original results informing on the diversity of pulse species used in food products, and on the technological features of these ingredients from whole-grain to ultra-processed uses (such as protein isolates). The parsing techniques we developed can be reused to analyse other ingredient lists. This method also makes it possible to assess marketed crop biodiversity in relation to how species diversity is represented in food products, as well as the level of complexity of food formulations. Hence, this work contributes towards providing more complete information on the characteristics of foodstuffs supplied on markets for both private and public stakeholders.

Effect of Lactic Fermentation and Cooking on Nutrient and Mineral Digestibility of Peas

Peas are prospectively beneficial legumes in the human diet, and especially in a vegan and vegetarian diet, due to their high content of proteins and starch. Their frequent lack of appeal in human nutrition can be caused by their bloating effect and the content of some antinutritional compounds inhibiting the absorption of important nutrients. This study brings a comprehensive comparison of the nutrient content of pea flour after cooking and lactic fermentation before and after digestion in vitro. As a control sample, raw pea flour was used (sample 1). Raw pea flour was cooked for 10 min (sample 2) and 120 min (sample 3) at 100°C or it was fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum (sample 4) and cooked for 10 min at 100°C (sample 5). The samples were analyzed for protein and amino acids content, maltose, glucose, raffinose, total polyphenols, phytic acid, phytase, and mineral composition (P, Mg, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn) before and after in vitro digestion. The results showed a significant (p &lt; 0.05) increase in the protein digestibility of samples 3, 4 and 5. In the fermented samples were observed a higher concentration of Cys, Met, and Gln when compared to non-fermented samples. The fermentation of pea flour resulted in a significant (p &lt; 0.05) decrease in glucose, maltose, and raffinose content. Cooking of pea flour for 10 and 120 min, but not fermenting, significantly (p &lt; 0.05) decreased the polyphenols content. Cooking and fermentation together did not affect phytic acid concentration and phytase activity. Mg, Mn, Fe, Cu and, Zn concentration in pea flour was significantly (p &lt; 0.05) decreased by cooking. On the other hand, fermentation significantly (p&lt;0.05) improved the bioaccessibility of Mn and Fe. These findings suggest that lactic fermentation of pea flour is a promising culinary preparation that can improve the digestibility of peas.

Widening the Perspectives for Legume Consumption: The Case of Bioactive Non-nutrients

Legume grains have provided essential nutrients in human diets for centuries, being excellent sources of proteins, carbohydrates, fatty acids, and fibers. They also contain several non-nutrients that historically have been connotated as toxic but that in recent years have been shown to have interesting bioactive properties. The discussion on the role of bioactive non-nutrients is becoming more important due to increasing science-based evidence on their potential antioxidant, hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, and anticarcinogenic properties. At a time when legume-based products consumption is being strongly promoted by national governments and health authorities, there is a need to clearly define the recommended levels of such non-nutrients in human diets. However, there is insufficient data determining the ideal amount of non-nutrients in legume grains, which will exert the most positive health benefits. This is aligned with insufficient studies that clearly demonstrate if the positive health effects are due to the presence of specific non-nutrients or a result of a dietary balance. In fact, rather than looking directly at the individual food components, most nutritional epidemiology studies relate disease risk with the food and dietary patterns. The purpose of this perspective paper is to explore different types of non-nutrients present in legume grains, discuss the current evidence on their health benefits, and provide awareness for the need for more studies to define a recommended amount of each compound to identify the best approaches, either to enhance or reduce their levels.

Legume Breeding for the Agroecological Transition of Global Agri-Food Systems: A European Perspective

Wider and more profitable legume crop cultivation is an indispensable step for the agroecological transition of global agri-food systems but represents a challenge especially in Europe. Plant breeding is pivotal in this context. Research areas of key interest are represented by innovative phenotypic and genome-based selection procedures for crop yield, tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses enhanced by the changing climate, intercropping, and emerging crop quality traits. We see outmost priority in the exploration of genomic selection (GS) opportunities and limitations, to ease genetic gains and to limit the costs of multi-trait selection. Reducing the profitability gap of legumes relative to major cereals will not be possible in Europe without public funding devoted to crop improvement research, pre-breeding, and, in various circumstances, public breeding. While most of these activities may profit of significant public-private partnerships, all of them can provide substantial benefits to seed companies. A favorable institutional context may comprise some changes to variety registration tests and procedures.