[LUM#17] Innovating for biodiversity with Qualinoa

[LUM Magazine, Podcast] - Published on October 11, 2022 in Science-Society

"Combining biodiversity and health in our food" is the motto of Didier Bazile, who has developed a bread recipe using a blend of flours from different varieties of quinoa. This innovation kills two birds with one stone: it preserves the biodiversity of quinoa and offers consumers a healthy food product.

A bread of exceptional nutritional quality, containing three times more protein than white bread made from wheat flour, all the essential amino acids, and gluten-free. Was this your dream? Didier Bazile made it happen. A project that is now well established, the seeds for which were sown more than 20 years ago. "I was working on participatory selection programs for millet and sorghum in West Africa, where I helped set up community seed banks with farmers, " recalls the specialist in the conservation of agricultural biodiversity of food plants. "That's when I was asked to contribute my expertise on quinoa-based peasant seed systems in the Andes, whose biodiversity, still little known, was collapsing."

Agricultural heritage

Quinoa actually comprises more than 6,000 varieties selected by generations of farmers. "Despite this great biological and cultural diversity, only a tiny fraction of this agricultural heritage is found on our supermarket shelves, reduced to large white grains of quinoa, at best expanded to three colors, " laments the specialist.

To reverse this loss of biodiversity and promote the nutritional value of quinoa, Didier Bazile developed his concept by creating a flour mix for bread-making, made from a blend of hundreds of varieties of quinoa. The problem is that it is gluten that gives wheat its bread-making properties, and quinoa does not contain gluten. Certain processes already exist for making bread with this grain, but they require numerous food additives: "That's the whole point of the recipe I've developed, because it doesn't use any food additives, eggs, palm oil, lactose, or highly allergenic nuts." The researcher has not disclosed the exact formulation, but he has revealed that part of the food technology process involves a special transformation of cassava.

Favorite

"The result is a genuine gluten-free bread containing 70% quinoa, whereas existing products contain no more than 10%," says Didier Bazile. This innovation was voted the favorite project by the 2020 jury of Montpellier's Booster Innovation. To help his project grow, the researcher has been supported since March 2021 by Alter'Incub, which specializes in social and solidarity economy projects. The specialist in food plant biodiversity has thus trained in business creation: "business plans, market studies, marketing positioning, labor law, etc." This support has been essential in setting up Qualinoa, whose articles of association are about to be filed, says the researcher-entrepreneur. " The support of the Occitanie region has enabled me to carry out the market research necessary for proper positioning, but above all to clearly define the collaborations needed for the launch," explains Didier Bazile.

And the opportunities are already there, with the arrival of "Mix-Quinoa panification" expected in organic stores in fall 2022. "A whole range will follow, including other mixes for making brioches, pastries, purées, and even 100% quinoa couscous." This should yield a bumper crop on the ever-growing global quinoa market .

Keywords: Agriculture, Innovation, LUM#17, LumLu, LUM Magazine, Research