A new chickpea chip called Chickitos could soon be coming to a grocery store near you.
The chickpea chips were the winner of the Alberta Mission ImPULSEible 2011 student challenge and were created by Kate Alexander, Marshall Bell, Eden Berhe and Paula Duenas, food science and nutrition program students at the University of Alberta.
“You guys all did a fantastic job,” said Sheri Strydhorst, executive director of the Alberta Pulse Growers. “I’m so impressed with the ingenuity and the creativity. I look forward to seeing lots more from you guys in the future.”
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Mission ImPULSEible Alberta is part of a Canada-wide competition run by Pulse Canada, and designed to encourage development of new pulse-based products and increase pulse consumption. Competitors can use either pulses or pulse fractions in the ingredients, and must carry the concept through from development to production (mimicking the activities of a commercial product development team) in just six weeks.
Students from the NAIT Culinary arts program and the University of Alberta food science program contributed six entries and competed in a Dragons’ Den style competition. They had 10 minutes to present their product to the room of about 20 guests and four judges. After each presentation, the judges had a chance to sample the product and ask questions.
Kate Alexander and Eden Berhe presented the Chickitos concept. The group originally wanted to create a chickpea, gluten-free cracker but it was too dry. They modified their idea to create a chickpea chip.
“I’m from Eritrea and a small village in that country makes a food that is similar to our chips,” said Berhe. “We took that recipe as our foundation, tweaked it and made it our own.”
The chips are comparable to potato chips in both look and taste, but have no added preservatives, a lower fat content, and a higher protein and fibre content. They contain chickpea flour, potato starch, turmeric, vegetable oil and spices. Alexander, a nutrition student, wanted to create a gluten-free product as she is a celiac and finds there are limited choices available for her when she needs a snack on campus.
“We intend this product to be a healthier alternative to the chocolate bar or the chips,” she said.
The winning foursome will compete against other provincial winners at the Canadian Special Crops Association convention in July.
Leslie Wong, from the NAIT Culinary Arts program, came in second with her pulse medley gnocchi. Yukling Kyang and Yao Fu, from the University of Alberta, created pulse-based noodles for a third-place finish.
Mission ImPULSEible has been a yearly event since 2009, and receives funding from Pulse Canada, the Alberta Pulse Growers and Growing Forward, which will enable pilot scale production of the chip at the Alberta Food Processing Centre.
Judges were Jay Han from the Leduc Food Processing Development Centre; Perry Michetti, associate dean of the School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts at NAIT; registered dietitian Debra McLennan; and Lori Grein of Kinnikinnick Foods.
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“Weintendthisproduct tobeahealthier alternativetothe chocolatebarorthe chips.”
KATE ALEXANDER
