A recent survey shows that restaurants offer hardly any pulses, even though a significant proportion of diners prefer them and consider them healthy.
Today, restaurants are not yet exploiting the gastronomic potential of pulses, with hardly any pulse vegetable dishes on offer, according to a representative survey by food processor Bonduelle for World Pulses Day.
Bean goulash and rice pudding
Bonduelle carried out a representative survey of 50 Hungarian restaurants and cafés, involving more than 1000 people. The survey showed that while the majority of restaurants, 84%, offer dishes with pulses, only 4% of the total offer of all restaurants had pulses. The choice is mainly limited to traditional Hungarian dishes such as bean soup, bean goulash and rice pudding, among others," the statement said.
At home and in the restaurant
The online survey showed that half of the people surveyed only eat pulses at home, but around 40 per cent of them also like to have them in restaurants. Green peas are the most popular in restaurants. 57% of restaurant goers eat pulses in restaurants because they like them, and 37% of respondents consider pulses to be healthy and would be particularly open to a variety of pulse dishes.
The Communication points out that leguminous vegetables are an excellent ingredient for both a complete plant-based diet and a healthy and varied flexitarian diet, which is very popular in Western European countries, and that legumes can play an increasingly important role in sustainable crop production.
World Thumbs Day
The World Food Day follows on the heels of the United Nations' designation of 2016 as the International Year of Pulses, to raise awareness of the different varieties of pulses and their beneficial production, nutritional and climate-protection properties. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, considers it important to promote pulses in the interests of long-term food and environmental sustainability.
Source: MTI
