Food Chemistry.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nDanish food producers have so far focused on the soya bean in their plant-based products, as it is cheaper and easier to work with than peas. The problem with soya beans, however, is that they are not sustainable.<\/p>\n
Europe imports vast quantities of soya beans by ship from as far away as South America where it grows on land that was once rainforest. The rainforest has been cut down to make way for soya cultivation, which means that the forest can no longer draw CO2 from the atmosphere. Almost all biodiversity in the area disappears along with it.<\/p>\n
Pea ice cream<\/h4>\n
So the Danish food industry is looking for an alternative. Enter the humble pea.<\/p>\n
Like soya beans, peas are rich in protein. Unlike soya beans, they can be grown natively in Denmark. What\u2019s more, they draw nitrogen from the air into the soil, which means they need less artificial fertiliser. Artificial fertiliser needs energy to produce and emits CO2<\/sub>.<\/p>\nReplacing soya beans with peas is not without its practical challenges however. For the past two and a half years, Rene Lametsch has been leading the project Give Peas a Chance<\/em>, where researchers are identifying the pea varieties best suited for use in food production.<\/p>\nThere is not a big selection of pea varieties available for food production, according to Rene Lametsch, and the ones that are available are mostly intended for use as pig feed.<\/p>\n
\u00bbOne of our challenges is to identify and use exactly the right pea variety for each purpose in order to get the best possible taste and texture. If a food company wants to make ice cream, for example, it obviously needs to resemble real dairy ice cream, taste good, and have just the just the right texture on the palate. It\u2019s just harder to achieve a good result with peas than with soya beans,\u00ab says Rene Lametsch.<\/p>\n
Top pick for food industry<\/h4>\n
Soya beans are still the food sector\u2019s go-to ingredient \u2014 but Rene Lametsch wants to change all that.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThere\u2019s clearly both a climate-conscious and ecological angle to this project. We need to avoid having to import soya beans from South America,\u00ab says Rene Lametsch.
\n
\nIt\u2019s high time that researchers help push the green transition forward, he believes.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWe\u2019ve used Give Peas a Chance<\/em> to stay ahead of the curve, because there still aren\u2019t that many products that make use of peas. Our goal is to make it possible for producers to develop new foods. They\u2019ll have more options to work with \u2014 and it has to be economically viable for them to use peas,\u00ab says Rene Lametsch.<\/p>\nFood revolution that never came<\/h4>\n
During his time at the Department of Food Science, the associate professor has seen how, in the early stages of the green transition, it was easy to get one group of Danes to change their diets and eat less meat.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThe idealists were, of course, easy to convince \u2014 for the sake of the climate. Now we\u2019re at the point where we need everyone else on board. But that\u2019s turned out to be much harder than we first thought. People start resisting when they have to learn how to cook new dishes and spend more time preparing food,\u00ab says Rene Lametsch.<\/p>\n
Up until a few years ago, he reckoned that a green food revolution was just around the corner. But it never materialised.<\/p>\n
He has seen many startups trying to launch green food products \u2014 but their efforts never caught on. Changing habits is harder than it seems, Rene Lametsch has realised. The hope is that Give Peas a Chance<\/em> can help drive things forward.<\/p>\n\u00bbWe\u2019ve mapped out how nutritious the peas are \u2014 including how many nutrients they contain and how much starch and fibre they have. Now more companies will benefit from everything that we\u2019ve discovered\u00ab.<\/p>\n
This article was first written in Danish and published on 27 January. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The soya bean is set to be replaced by the Danish pea in plant-based food. University of Copenhagen associate professor explains the sustainable food initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":187215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[340,8672,8673,8674,7217],"class_list":["post-187370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-foedevarevidenskab-en","tag-groen-forskning","tag-landbrug","tag-aerter","tag-oekologi-en","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Peas in your dessert? It\u2019s happening \u2014 University Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Basic research into 51 pea varieties may get the food industry to produce plant-based food without soybeans.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/peas-in-your-dessert-its-happening\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Peas in your dessert? 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Han vil nu have forskerne til at g\u00e5 forrest i kampen for den gr\u00f8nne omstilling, s\u00e5 Danmarks madproduktion kan blive mere CO2-neutral. Noget af l\u00f8sningen kan ligge hos den lille, gr\u00f8nne \u00e6rt.","use_post_excerpt":true},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":true,"contributors":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>For some years now, researchers at the Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), have been developing a more plant-based diet so that our food systems can be more sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Now they are specifically taking a closer look at the Danish pea.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe\u2019ve started investigating different types of peas to see, for example, how they might replace meat,\u00ab says Associate Professor Rene Lametsch, who has worked at the Department of Food Science for 22 years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">Scanned 1,200 pea varieties using AI<\/p>\n<p>The 51 pea varieties examined by the research group were sourced from the Nordic Gene Bank, which contains around <strong>2,100 traditional pea varieties<\/strong>\u00a0stored deep within the mountains of Svalbard, Norway.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers used AI to scan 1,200 peas from the gene bank. They identified <strong>51 varieties suitable for further investigation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>AI analysis uses a simple photo of the peas. The structure of the surface \u2014 how wrinkled it is \u2014 reveals the chemical composition and its suitability for human consumption.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Results were published<\/strong> in the journal <em><a href=\"https:\/\/curis.ku.dk\/ws\/files\/458096393\/1-s2.0-S0308814625027293-main.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Food Chemistry.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Danish food producers have so far focused on the soya bean in their plant-based products, as it is cheaper and easier to work with than peas. The problem with soya beans, however, is that they are not sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Europe imports vast quantities of soya beans by ship from as far away as South America where it grows on land that was once rainforest. The rainforest has been cut down to make way for soya cultivation, which means that the forest can no longer draw CO2 from the atmosphere. Almost all biodiversity in the area disappears along with it.<\/p>\n<h4>Pea ice cream<\/h4>\n<p>So the Danish food industry is looking for an alternative. Enter the humble pea.<\/p>\n<p>Like soya beans, peas are rich in protein. Unlike soya beans, they can be grown natively in Denmark. What\u2019s more, they draw nitrogen from the air into the soil, which means they need less artificial fertiliser. Artificial fertiliser needs energy to produce and emits CO<sub>2<\/sub>.<\/p>\n<p>Replacing soya beans with peas is not without its practical challenges however. For the past two and a half years, Rene Lametsch has been leading the project <em>Give Peas a Chance<\/em>, where researchers are identifying the pea varieties best suited for use in food production.<\/p>\n<p>There is not a big selection of pea varieties available for food production, according to Rene Lametsch, and the ones that are available are mostly intended for use as pig feed.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbOne of our challenges is to identify and use exactly the right pea variety for each purpose in order to get the best possible taste and texture. If a food company wants to make ice cream, for example, it obviously needs to resemble real dairy ice cream, taste good, and have just the just the right texture on the palate. It\u2019s just harder to achieve a good result with peas than with soya beans,\u00ab says Rene Lametsch.<\/p>\n<h4>Top pick for food industry<\/h4>\n<p>Soya beans are still the food sector\u2019s go-to ingredient \u2014 but Rene Lametsch wants to change all that.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThere\u2019s clearly both a climate-conscious and ecological angle to this project. We need to avoid having to import soya beans from South America,\u00ab says Rene Lametsch.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Image","image":{"ID":187022,"id":187022,"title":"DSC_4277 Rene Lametsch web","filename":"dsc_4277web-1.jpg","filesize":340578,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/aertefloedeis-du-kan-godt-begynde-at-vaenne-dig-til-tanken\/dsc_4277-web\/","alt":"","author":"8","description":"","caption":"","name":"dsc_4277-web","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":186583,"date":"2026-01-26 11:25:05","modified":"2026-01-27 12:43:13","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2400,"height":1600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-480x320.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":320,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-1280x853.jpg","large-width":1280,"large-height":853,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-1536x1024.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-2048x1365.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1365,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-290x193.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":193,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-700x467.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":467,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dsc_4277web-1-990x660.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":660}},"style":"full","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":true,"alternative_caption":"Associate Professor Rene Lametsch in the laboratory at the Department of Food and Resource Economics. A mass spectrometer in the centre of the image can decode the contents of different pea varieties. It takes up to three weeks to analyse a single pea from a specific variety."},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>It\u2019s high time that researchers help push the green transition forward, he believes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe\u2019ve used <em>Give Peas a Chance<\/em> to stay ahead of the curve, because there still aren\u2019t that many products that make use of peas. Our goal is to make it possible for producers to develop new foods. They\u2019ll have more options to work with \u2014 and it has to be economically viable for them to use peas,\u00ab says Rene Lametsch.<\/p>\n<h4>Food revolution that never came<\/h4>\n<p>During his time at the Department of Food Science, the associate professor has seen how, in the early stages of the green transition, it was easy to get one group of Danes to change their diets and eat less meat.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThe idealists were, of course, easy to convince \u2014 for the sake of the climate. Now we\u2019re at the point where we need everyone else on board. But that\u2019s turned out to be much harder than we first thought. People start resisting when they have to learn how to cook new dishes and spend more time preparing food,\u00ab says Rene Lametsch.<\/p>\n<p>Up until a few years ago, he reckoned that a green food revolution was just around the corner. But it never materialised.<\/p>\n<p>He has seen many startups trying to launch green food products \u2014 but their efforts never caught on. Changing habits is harder than it seems, Rene Lametsch has realised. The hope is that <em>Give Peas a Chance<\/em> can help drive things forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe\u2019ve mapped out how nutritious the peas are \u2014 including how many nutrients they contain and how much starch and fibre they have. Now more companies will benefit from everything that we\u2019ve discovered\u00ab.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was first written in Danish and published on 27 January. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"en","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Get an email with upcoming events and top University of Copenhagen stories","button_text":"Sign up here","class":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":false,"references":false,"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":46,"name":"Science","slug":"science","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":46,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":831,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":340,"name":"F\u00f8devarevidenskab","slug":"foedevarevidenskab-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":340,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":8672,"name":"Gr\u00f8n forskning","slug":"groen-forskning","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":8672,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":8673,"name":"landbrug","slug":"landbrug","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":8673,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":8674,"name":"\u00e6rter","slug":"aerter","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":8674,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":7217,"name":"\u00f8kologi","slug":"oekologi-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7217,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":15,"name":"News Article","slug":"news_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":11485,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[{"term_id":5468,"name":"Optional","slug":"optional-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5468,"taxonomy":"translation_priority","description":"","parent":0,"count":672,"filter":"raw"}]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/istock176216930.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187370"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187549,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187370\/revisions\/187549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}