NDSU Associate Professor Researches how North Dakota Crops Can
Be Used by Food Manufacturers January 30, 2012, Fargo, N.D. – If
you have ever been curious about where the idea for your
breakfast cereal or snack food originated, it may have been in a
lab like the one at Harris Hall where Clifford Hall conducts his
research. Hall, associate professor in the School of Food
Systems and interim technical director of the Northern Crops
Institute, researches how North Dakota crops, such as beans,
peas and flax, can be used in nontraditional ways. Grinding
dried beans, puffing them and coating them with cheese, for
example, produces a food similar to Cheetos, which are made from
corn, he explained. And protein from peas can replace eggs in
baked goods such as cakes, cookies and muffins. “Most people
don’t think of peas and eggs functioning the same way, but they
can in baking applications,” Hall said. The advantage of using
dried beans in snack food is the high fiber, micronutrient and
protein content that starchy sn