[LUM#17] Innovating for Biodiversity with Qualinoa

[LUM Magazine, Podcast] - Published on October 11, 2022 in Science and 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 made from different varieties of quinoa. This innovation kills two birds with one stone: it preserves quinoa biodiversity and offers consumers a healthy food option.

A bread of exceptional nutritional quality, containing three times more protein than white wheat flour bread, all the essential amino acids, and gluten-free. Have you been dreaming of this? Didier Bazile has made it a reality. A project that is now fully realized, the seeds of which were sown more than 20 years ago. “At the time, I was working on participatory breeding programs for millet and sorghum in West Africa, where I helped farmers set up community seed banks, ” recalls the specialist in agricultural biodiversity conservation for food crops. “That’s when I was asked to contribute my expertise on farmer-based quinoa seed systems in the Andes, where the still-little-known biodiversity was collapsing.”

Agricultural Heritage

Quinoa actually comprises more than 6,000 heirloom 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—limited to large-grain white quinoa, or at best expanded to include three colors, ” laments the expert.

To reverse this loss of biodiversity and highlight quinoa’s nutritional value, Didier Bazile developed his concept by creating a flour blend for baking bread, made from a mixture of hundreds of quinoa varieties. The problem: it’s gluten that gives wheat its bread-making properties, and quinoa, in fact, contains no gluten. Some methods already exist for making bread with this grain, but they rely on numerous food additives: “That’s the whole point of the recipe I’ve developed—it uses no food additives, no eggs, no palm oil, no lactose, and no highly allergenic tree nuts.” It’s a secret formula, though the researcher reveals that part of the food technology process relies on a specific method of processing cassava.

Favorite

“The end result is a genuine gluten-free bread containing 70% quinoa, whereas existing products don’t exceed 10%,” says Didier Bazile proudly. This innovation was named the jury’s favorite project at the 2020 Montpellier Booster Innovation competition. To help grow his project, the researcher has been working with Alter’Incub since March 2021, an organization specializing in social and solidarity economy projects. The specialist in food crop biodiversity has thus received training in entrepreneurship: “business plans, market research, marketing positioning, labor law… This support has been essential for launching Qualinoa, whose articles of incorporation are about to be filed,” says the researcher-turned-entrepreneur. “The support from the Occitanie region has allowed me to conduct the market research needed for proper positioning, but above all to clearly define the partnerships necessary for the launch, ” explains Didier Bazile.

And the market opportunities are already there, with the “Quinoa Bread Mix” set to hit organic stores in the fall of 2022. “A whole range will follow, including other mixes for making brioche, pastries, purees, and even a 100% quinoa couscous.” This should yield a bountiful harvest in the ever-growing global quinoa market.

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