Nutritive quality of Finnish grown grain legumes

Summary

Grain legumes have excellent nutritional quality that makes them a staple ingredient for feeding
ruminants, pigs and poultry. Legumes are known for their high protein content, and although
they are low in the sulphur-containing amino acids and tryptophan, they have a high content of
lysine; thus they are an ideal supplement to cereal-based diets and food products (Duranti &
Cius 1997).
Legumes have many beneficial effects in human diet.
There is potential and sufficient farmer interest to establish grain legume crops in the
Nordic-Baltic region through screening imported germplasm for adaptation. There are many
potential uses of legume seeds as functional ingredients, thus further research is needed to
design legume-supplemented food products. In addition, it is very important to publicize
their health benefits, to assure consumer acceptance.