Chick peas
frozen Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are part of the legume family and are a pale, round, creamy pea. Particularly popular in Indian, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern cuisines, they are best known for their use in hummus.
Chickpeas are a nutrient-dense food and are incredibly high in protein, providing 20% of a person’s daily intake. This makes them an excellent replacement for meat in vegan and vegetarian diets. They are also full of vitamins, minerals, and fibre, helping to improve digestion and aid weight loss. IQF chickpeas have the same nutty taste, grainy texture, colour and nutritional profile of fresh chickpeas, but with the convenience and longer shelf life of a frozen product.
Processing
Dried chick peas are delivered to the factory. Each load is sampled and assessed for foreign material, seed size and physical defects. The load is then soaked for 24 hours, cooked for a time sufficient to ensure that lectin levels to below 400 HU/g, frozen and filled into bulk palletainers. The frozen beans are sampled and assessed against this specification. The palletainers are then labelled and transferred to the cold store, where they are stored at –18°C until required for packing.