Pre-Cooked Beans for Consumer Convenience

Advanced approach for quick, convenient, and delicious bean

Pre-cooked whole beans are available in dried, canned, and frozen forms, and can be prepared in a short amount of time, ranging from 10 to 30 minutes. This saves a significant amount of cooking time, eliminating the need for soaking and reducing fuel usage. The process of making pre-cooked beans involves sorting, washing, and sizing, followed by passing air and water over the food product. The beans are then blanched at 95°C for 3 minutes, soaked at 45°C for 120 minutes, sterilized and cooked at 97°C for another 120 minutes, and finally dried at room temperature for approximately 24 hours. After this process, the beans are packaged and frozen. Canned beans undergo a similar procedure of soaking, blanching, and cooking, followed by the addition of brine, cooling, canning, and labeling. Both pre-cooked frozen and canned beans can be marketed for both local consumption and export markets.

This technology is TAAT1 validated.

7•7

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 7/9; level of use 7/9

Positive or neutral impact

Adults 18 and over: Positive high
The poor: Positive medium
Under 18: Positive medium
Women: Positive high

Positive or neutral impact

Climate adaptability: It adapts somewhat well
Adaptability for farmers: It helps somewhat
Carbon footprint: It reduces emissions a lot
Environment: It makes a big difference
Soil quality: It doesn't harm the soil's health and fertility
Water usage: It uses a little less water

Problem

Long cooking time, high energy, and water requirements associated with dried common beans discourage their sale and consumption.
Poorer households are discouraged from consuming whole dried beans due to the time, fuel, and water requirements.
Lack of access to nutritious diets among consumers due to the inconvenience of traditional bean preparation methods.
Limited market opportunities and profit margins for farmers and processors in the common bean value chain.

Solution

Pre-cooking combined with canned or frozen preservation techniques substantially decreases preparation time and fuel use, making beans more attractive to consumers.
Pre-cooked beans technology opens up access to higher-value markets, thereby increasing the income of farmers and stimulating demand.
It strengthens the common bean value chain in Sub-Saharan Africa, offering greater marketability and profit margins.
Provides convenience and time savings for consumers, particularly women homemakers and canteen caterers, allowing them to engage in more productive activities.
Reduces cooking costs by 90%, saving energy expenditure for households and conserving forests by decreasing wood and fossil fuel use.
Increases economic opportunities for processors, community-based or cooperative enterprises, and large industrial food manufacturers.
Addresses the nutritional needs of consumers by providing convenient access to nutritious diets, particularly in urban and rural households, schools, armed forces, hospitals, and prisons.
Offers economic benefits for processors, with an internal rate of return of 32% to 53%, leading to positive cash flow in three years.
Promotes responsible consumption practices and contributes to climate resilience through reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Key points to design your project

This technology aims to reduce the long cooking time, high energy, and water requirements associated with dried common beans, making them more appealing to consumers. It benefits both consumers and farmers. By freeing up time for women, reducing energy consumption, and contributing to food security and responsible consumption, It has positive impacts on gender empowerment, climate, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This technology can be incorporated into nutrition projects as an alternative solution to meats and other protein sources, while also presenting an opportunity for food processors and supermarkets.

To integrate this technology into your project, create a list of project activities and prerequisites, including:

Awareness raising with farmers, agri-food companies and investors about the business opportunities created by the technology,
Formulating appropriate product standards, packaging sizes and prices based on consumer demand,
Identifying profitable, durable and equitable models for production and marketing of pre-cooked beans,
Organizing reliable supply of beans by contracting nucleus farms and out grower networks,
Installing energy-efficient and labor-saving equipment to minimize production costs, and
Training operators and workers on safety and quality adherence throughout the process.

- Estimate the quantity of precooked beans needed for your project.

As the technology is available in west, central and east-Africa, include the delivery cost to the project site and account for import clearance and duties if relevant.

Communication support for the technology should be developed (flyers, videos, radio broadcasts, etc.)

For better optimization of this technology, it is recommended to associate this technology with Biofortified Beans for Improved Nutrition

To implement the technology in your country, you could collaborate with Food processor companies.

1,500 USD

Per mall electric cooker system for making pre-cooked beans with a capacity of 100 liter

20,000 USD

Per large hot water boiler powered with petrol or natural gas with a capacity of 0.5 ton per hour

IP

Unknown

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested

Countries where the technology has been tested and adopted
Country	Tested	Adopted
Benin	Tested	Adopted
Burundi	Tested	Adopted
Cameroon	Tested	Adopted
Central African Republic	Tested	Adopted
Côte d’Ivoire	Tested	Adopted
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Tested	Adopted
Gabon	Tested	Adopted
Ghana	Tested	Adopted
Kenya	Tested	Adopted
Malawi	Tested	Adopted
Mozambique	Tested	Adopted
Nigeria	Tested	Adopted
Rwanda	Tested	Adopted
Senegal	Tested	Adopted
Sierra Leone	Tested	Adopted
South Sudan	Tested	Adopted
Tanzania	Tested	Adopted
Uganda	Tested	Adopted
Zambia	Tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid
Semiarid
Subhumid
Humid

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 8: decent work and economic growth

Goal 12: responsible production and consumption

Goal 2: zero hunger

Goal 5: gender equality

Sorting, Washing, and Sizing: The process begins with sorting, washing, and sizing the beans. Air and water are used to pass over the food product to remove impurities.
Blanching: The sorted and cleaned beans are subjected to blanching at 95°C for 3 minutes. This step helps in preserving the quality of the beans.
Soaking: After blanching, the beans are soaked at 45°C for 120 minutes. This process hydrates the beans and prepares them for further cooking.
Sterilization and Cooking: The hydrated beans are then subjected to sterilization and cooking at 97°C for 120 minutes. This ensures that the beans are fully cooked and ready for consumption.
Drying: Following the cooking process, the beans are dried at room temperature for approximately 24 hours. This step helps in removing excess moisture and preparing the beans for packaging.
Packaging and Freezing (for frozen products) or Canning (for canned products): The processed beans are then packaged and either frozen or canned, depending on the preservation method chosen.