A Teagasc project is examining the potential to use Irish beans to produce gluten-free bread and breakfast cereals.

Eimear Gallagher, a researcher at Teagasc Ashtown, told the Teagasc National Tillage Conference on Wednesday 29 January that there are more coeliacs in Ireland than anywhere else in the world.

About 450,000 people are coeliacs (people who cannot eat gluten) or are gluten-intolerant.

Gallagher noted that gluten-free foods are often not fortified and beans, which are high in protein, fibre and micro-nutrients, could help to improve these products. A lifecycle assessment is also being carried out on these crops.

Gallagher also reported on work examining the inclusion of Irish peas into flour for bread. Teagasc has shown that a mix of 15% pea flour and 85% wheat flour can result in little change to the taste or composition of bread produced from these flours.

However, peas can supply more protein and dietary fibre - something that more consumers are now looking for. Work is now under way to use 35% to 40% pea flour in mixes.

If successful, these products could provide higher-value markets for Irish farmers to supply, something Teagasc director Frank O’Mara told the conference was important to improve profits on tillage farms.