How Saskatchewan Pulse Growers’ Pulse Quality Program is helping build higher-value pulse markets
A few weeks ago, Maria Hounjet at the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre (Food Centre) was approached by a client developing a lentil-based product who had run into a persistent, costly issue: iron precipitation.
Luckily, Hounjet was able to provide the client with insights into the iron content of Canadian-produced lentils, including variations by variety, growing year, and location.
As a result, the client was able to reformulate the product to account for known variability and deliver a more consistent, stable product.
“She was amazed,” says Hounjet.
That data exists because Saskatchewan Pulse Growers (SPG) launched the Pulse Quality Program (PQP) in 2022, in partnership with the Food Centre and Pulse Canada, to understand better how different pulse varieties perform across Canadian growing environments.
The program was built around a simple idea: the industry lacked consistent, reliable data on how key quality traits vary across varieties and regions, says Laurie Friesen, Seed Program Manager with SPG.
“There really wasn’t good information on some of these traits from different varieties and environments. We wanted to develop the data and have those reports available to anybody who wants to access them.”
Using thousands of samples from regional variety trials across Canada’s pulse-growing regions, the PQP has built one of the most comprehensive datasets available to date.
For Hounjet, the Food Centre’s Director of Crop Science, Product Development, and Ingredient Innovation, the value of this work became clear early on.
“There is more impact in studying the genotype of the pulse than focusing on improving the processing.”
As the project nears its five-year mark, it’s clear this data has the potential to add value across the entire pulse value chain.
Phases 1 & 2
Phase One of the project, completed in 2024, focused largely on traits that matter at the farm and elevator level — protein, colour, seed characteristics, and visual quality. A major takeaway from this phase was the development of a standardized way to measure seed coat breakage.
Phase Two, now underway and funded by SPG, Pulse Canada, the Canadian Pulse and Special Crops Trade Association, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and others, is shifting the focus toward the interests of processors and end users.
That means generating more detailed data on nutritional and functional traits, says Janelle Carlin, Director of Quality, Science, and Food Innovation with Pulse Canada, including protein quality, fat content, dietary fibre and starch behaviour, as well as processing characteristics such as dehulling efficiency and behaviour under heat.
For the food industry, this level of detail is critical, Carlin says.
“This dataset is something that is really valuable for us to help to be able to define the quality of Canadian pulse crops for that value-added sector,” she says.
Benefits for Food Processors
For processors, the benefit is straightforward: better information leads to better product applications.
Providing processors with this level of detail also helps drive innovation, says Carlin, making it easier to develop new products and expand the use of Canadian pulses in food manufacturing. In turn, that growing demand helps create a stronger, more stable connection between production and end use.
So far, the data has shown that even small differences can have a big impact. In pea protein processing, for example, although fat makes up only a small percentage of the seed, the fat-to-protein ratio can significantly affect processing yields.
Similarly, traits like hydration and soaking capacity can determine how well chickpeas perform in canning or hummus production.
Detailed quality data like this can translate into clear, practical market signals for food processors, says Hounjet, helping identify which pulse varieties are best suited to specific food uses and allowing them to be targeted to higher-value markets.
Benefits for Growers
This data holds great benefit for pulse growers as well, says Friesen – starting with better information for on-farm decision-making.
“This will help with variety selection,” she says, pointing to differences in how traits like protein perform across environments and over time.
The data also helps growers better understand the overall value of their crops and potential market opportunities, and to identify which varieties are best suited to target specific end-use markets.
Giving processors the data they need to identify preferred varieties for a particular end-use could, in turn, help enable grower premiums for specific varieties, says Carlin.
The program is also supporting pulse breeding efforts, Friesen adds, by providing breeders with multi-year, multi-environment data on key quality traits.
“They’re certainly targeting some of these traits … things like dehulling efficiency. All of these traits could factor into breeding decisions down the road.”
Supporting Market Growth, Competitiveness & Stable Demand
At a broader level, the PQP is also strengthening Canada’s position in global markets, says Carlin.
That matters in an increasingly competitive landscape, where countries like Russia are expanding pulse production.
Canada’s advantage, she says, is its ability to provide detailed, reliable quality data that competitors often can’t match.
That transparency is becoming increasingly important, not just for product performance, but for regulatory compliance.
Markets such as the European Union and the United States are tightening requirements around contaminants such as heavy metals. The program’s data is helping identify varieties that accumulate lower levels, providing a pathway to meet those standards, she says.
For high-sensitivity uses like infant food, that kind of information isn’t optional — it’s essential.
Turning Data into Demand
The PQP reflects a broader shift across Canadian agriculture: success is increasingly defined by how crops meet the needs of specific, specialized markets.
For Canada’s pulse sector, that means moving toward supplying ingredients with clearly defined nutritional, functional and processing characteristics, backed by data.
Tools like SPG’s Pulse Variety Hub and Pulse Canada’s Pulse Quality Dashboard are helping make that information available to growers and to other members of the value chain.
As global competition intensifies and food companies demand greater consistency, traceability and performance from ingredients, industry leaders say programs like the PQP will become increasingly important to maintaining Canada’s competitive edge.
