The Rediscovery of Amaranth

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Technical improvement of amaranth tosupport agricultural development

in semiarid areas of Mexico

The rediscovery of amaranth

With contributions fromIn collaboration with

INGLlibretto amarantook 24-10-2007 14:55 Pagina 1


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The Slow Food Movement

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic organization that was founded in1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food tradi-tions and peoples dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes fromand how it tastes.Our movement is founded upon the concept of eco-gastronomy a recognitionof the essential connection between food, local area and planet.Slow Food believes that food should be good, clean and fair. Food should taste

good; it should be produced in a way that does not harm the environment, ani-mal welfare or human health; and food producers should receive fair compensa-tion for their work.Slow Food members consider themselves informed co-producers rather than con-sumers. They defend food heritage, traditions and culture and become a part ofthe production process.Now, with over 80,000 members around the world and more than 700 convivia(local chapters), Slow Food is promoting a new approach to food production andenjoyment through a range of organizations and activities. It manages projects todefend biodiversity around the world (the Ark of Taste, Presidia); it organizestaste education initiatives and courses for people to learn more about food (Taste

Workshops, Master of Food courses, School Gardens, the University ofGastronomic Sciences); it develops events that enable producers and co-producersto meet (Salone del Gusto, Cheese, Slow Fish, Aux Origines du Got and A Tasteof Slow); and it promotes information campaigns to make the public aware ofissues involving food.

The structure

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www.slowfood.it - www.slowfood.com



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The structure

The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity

The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity works in order to defend food biodi-versity and food traditions around the world. It promotes sustainable forms ofagriculture that respect the environment, peoples cultural identity and animalwellbeing, through many projects.The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity was founded in Florence in 2003 inpartnership with the Tuscany Regional Authority, and is funded through theefforts of the Slow Food movement, by institutions, private companies, other

Foundations and anyone interested in supporting projects defending biodiversity.The Slow Food Foundation supports and spreads the idea of biodiversity as a fac-tor in human, civil and democratic growth. It acts to defend the food heritage,environmental, farming and artisan heritage in any country. While it supportsprojects around the world, its most significant commitment is focused on develo-ping countries, where defending biodiversity not only means improving peoplesquality of life, but can mean guaranteeing life itself.Whit its work, always being in touch with producers and co-producers, the SlowFood Foundation operates in order to identify, select and catalog agricultural andfood products at risk of extinction; to improve the sustainability of productionmethods and protect food producing environments; to protect small producers,

strengthen their social role and cultural identity; to promote the geographical ori-gins of products; to make quality artisan products widely known and accessible tothe public; to promote exchanges of information and knowledge among smallproducers, thereby strengthening the worldwide network of food communities;to promote a short supply chain, reducing intermediate stages between produ-cers and co-producers.

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www.fondazioneslowfood.it - www.slowfoodfoundation.com



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The Presidia

The Foundations main activity is the Presidium project: there are 300 Presidia in43 countries around the world, set up to protect small producers and save qua-lity artisan products.The Presidium project started in Italy in 1999, as an operational stage to the Arkof Taste project: the Ark had catalogued hundreds of products at risk of extin-ction and Slow Food decided to take the next step, using the Presidia to enterthe practical world of production. It knew about the locations, had met produ-

cers and worked with them so it could help them to promote and publicize theirproducts, work and knowledge.The first two projects were in Piedmont and in Tuscany (Italy), later on SlowFood began to set up Presidia in developing countries. In these cases thePresidium extended its scope, considering not only the production chain butalso social issues (for example the involvement of women or the education ofproducers children) and environmental questions. In these countries thePresidium often does not restrict itself to preserving a food tradition, but inter-venes to improve a product, offering producers the technical assistance needed(for example by paying for the services of an agronomist or arranging exchan-ges and training periods at high quality companies) or buying processing equip-

ment such as a rice husker, a vacuum packaging machine or a combine harve-ster.Thanks to the support of the entire Slow Food network, members, technicalexperts, researchers, journalists, cooks and producers, the Presidia are helpingto improve production methods, train producers and develop the local andinternational market for their products.

The structure

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The structure

The Tehuacn Amaranth Presidium

The Amaranth Presidium, founded in March 2003 in collaboration with the theMexican organizationAlternativas, aims to revive the cultivation of amaranth. Itcovers sixty villages in Tehuacn Valley in Puebla and Oaxaca States (the MixtecaRegion, Mexico), involving over 1,000 native families. Each family plants on aver-

age a half hectare of amaranth and in the rest of the plot of land (milpa) plantsa mix of corn, beans, peppers and pumpkin. The amaranth grown by thePresidium producers is harvested and processed under a common brand name:Quali, or good in the Nhuatl language.In recent years the Presidium has worked in three main areas: promoting a tradi-tional sweet food based on amaranth (alegra); setting up a center for exhibitingand selling amaranth in a Water Museum and developing experimental ama-ranth-based products. These activities are part of a new project entitled TheRediscovery of Amaranth.

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Production Area:

Tehuacn Valley, Puebla State, Mexico



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A healthy food for our children, this is amaranth firstly - says Doa Francisca -easy to digest, nutritious and complete, that lends itself to many different

preparations, simple recipes such as tortillas or fried leaves, that the small girls

too learn to cook. For this reason it was well worth to accept the Qualipropos-

al and to develop working groups, in order to learn to cultivate an amount of

amaranth not only for our private use, but for sale also.

Words by Doa Francisca Rosas, a tireless amaranth promoter and grower of Grupo

Esperanza, who participated to the first Terra Madre event in 2004 and who died in 2007 atthe age of 50.



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The Alternativas AssociationThe Organizacin Civil de Desarollo (OCD, Civil Organization for Development)Alternativas y Procesos de Participacin Social (Alternatives and Processes forSocial Participation) was founded in 1980, through the initiative of philosopherRal Hernndez Garciadiego and his wife Gisela Herreras Guerra. From thebeginning it has conducted a program of regional development for poor villagesand families in the Mixteca Region to provide the most urgent basic needs suchas water, food and cooperative work.To achieve its objectives,Alternativas is engaged in research and the recovery ofthe traditional knowledge of the indigenous people, reviving and adapting it tomodern conditions. In particular Alternativas is studying the farming systemswhich for 7500 years underpinned Mesoamerican agriculture, and methods ofmanaging water resources involving sophisticated irrigation systems which weredeveloped as far back as 750 BC. It is also promoting agricultural developmentprojects and the defense of endangered crops such as amaranth.

The Quali Cooperative Group

The Qualigroup of cooperatives is made up of over 1,000 native farming familiesin the Mixteca Region.The focus of Qualis activity is the workshop for transforming the bagged ama-ranth seeds brought by farming families after harvesting. The small plant makespuffed or toasted whole grain, traditional flour and ingredients for beveragesand products such as cookies and snacks. The most traditional product is a sweetfood called Alegra, whose original recipe (toasted amaranth, caramelized canesugar, water and lemon) can be varied by adding raisins or chocolate chips.Qualiwas awarded the Slow Food Award for the Defense of Biodiversity in 2002.

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The structure

www.alternativas.org.mx - www.quali.com.mx



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Amaranth

In pre-Colombian times ama-ranth seeds were such an essen-tial product for the local dietthat they became an integralpart of pagan rituals andlegends.



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A plant to be rediscoveredM. Lucisano, M. Mariotti, M.A. Pagani

Amaranth is a herbaceous annual plant belonging to the Amaranthaceae family,originally from the Tehuacn region (Mexico) and parts of South America. In pre-Colombian times amaranth seeds were such an essential product for the local dietthat they became an integral part of pagan rituals and legends. With the declineof local cultures after Spanish colonization, amaranth fell into disuse or was evenprohibited. Nonetheless, some small communities continued to cultivate it and ena-

bled it to survive and spread around the world. Over the centuries there is eviden-ce of it being in Europe (from the 18th century as an ornamental plant), in Africa(from the 19th century as a vegetable) and in Asia (from the 19th century as a cere-al), even though it never achieved the importance in these places as in its countriesof origin. The publication in 1970 of the book Underexploited Tropical Plants withPromising Economic Value (National Academy of Sciences, 1975) directed theattention of the world scientific community towards amaranth because of its excel-lent nutritional composition and contributed to its revival. At present amaranth isgrown for commercial purposes in Mexico, South America, the United States, China,Poland and Austria.The genus Amaranthus includes about 60 species, but only 3 are considered good

seed producers:A. hypochondriacus, A. cruentus and A. caudatus. Amaranth seedsare small (average diameter: 1.0-1.5 mm, weight of 1000 seeds: 0.6-1.2 g), lenticu-lar in shape and with a color varying from creamy white to brown. The annularembryo completely surrounds the amylaceous perisperm. From a nutritional stan-dpoint, the seeds ofA. hypochondriacus L. (the main variety grown in Mexico) con-tain 15-20% of lysine-rich protein (3.2-6.4 g/100g protein compared to 2.8-3.0g/100g protein for wheat), 58-66% of starch, 6-9% of raw fiber and 6-8% of highlyunsaturated lipids. There are particularly high concentrations of calcium(250mg/100g) and iron (15mg/100g) - 10 and 4 times higher respectively than thosefound in wheat. The main component of the unsaponifiable fraction of the oilextracted from the seeds is squalene (6-8%), a compound widely used in the cosme-tic industry, with high amounts normally present in some marine animals. The smallsize of the seeds and their particular morphology affect the methods used to tran-sform amaranth; processes developed for other cereals cannot be directly transfer-red to this material without appropriate modification. Amaranth has many uses: itis consumed in seed form, after cooking or as puffed cereal; it is ground and usedas flour; it can be puffed and ground to obtain pregelatinized flour. In Mexico inparticular, the seed is used as a puffed cereal and mixed with honey or molasses toproduce a traditional sweet product (Alegra). Amaranth does not contain glutenand is therefore a raw material of interest for those suffering from celiac disease.

Amaranth

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Amaranth

The happiness in the Mesoamerican civilizationRal Hernndez Garciadiego y Gisela Herreras Guerra

Amaranth is a wonderful family of plants with a history dating back to the remo-te past of Mesoamerican civilization. The variety Amaranthus hypochondriacusreaches two or three meters in height, has large green leaves and a magnificentflower called panoja (panicle), which can be one meter and has intense crimson,pink or bright green colors.The plants popular name, alegra, derives from the feeling of happiness conve-

yed by the bright colors of a field of amaranth.Botanists classify amaranth as a pseudocereal, since its main characteristics arevery similar to those of other cereals. However amaranth is distinctive in the wayit fixes carbon, which makes it very rich in protein (17 %) iron and vitamins, andbecause it is gluten-free. It is thus a plant that qualifies as an excellent proteinfood.These properties led to it being the first plant germinated on a spaceship in 1985and being selected by researchers due to its potential as a good food source forfuture generations in the space era.All parts of the amaranth plant are used: the germinated seeds and young leavescan be eaten as vegetables. After flowering, small round seeds appear (1 1.5 mm

in diameter) which pop-up when heated, producing crunchy palomitas with apleasant delicate flavor.The seeds can also be ground to produce flour which can be combined with flourfrom other materials to make a basic ingredient for tortillas, flat and ordinary bre-ads, pastries and many other products. The leaves of grown plants can be fried orboiled, alternatively dried and transformed into spice to keep through winter.Finally, amaranth is a high quality forage for feeding animals, and can be madeinto compost for fertilizing the land.Like corn, beans, peppers and pumpkin, amaranth originates from the TehuacnValley, in Puebla state, situated in the Mixteca Region of south-east Mexico,where it was domesticated for the first time between 5200 and 3400 BC, subse-

quently spreading to other regions of Mexico and the rest of the world.After the discovery of America when missionary friars arrived together withSpanish conquistadores and asked the local people what they lived on, the Indiansreplied: Corn, beans and amaranth enable us to survive.Amaranth - which in the Nhuatl language of the native Mexicas is calledhuautl - was highly regarded by local people and celebrated in their magnifi-cent religious festivals. Palomitas were used to produce a dough molded intothe form of gods of fertility, water and harvest. These figures were offered attemples and sprinkled with the blood of human sacrifices before being distri-

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buted to the public to be eaten. The European missionaries prohibited the culti-vation of amaranth and all the native religious rituals, with violations subject tosevere sanctions.This ban led to the almost total disappearance of the plant, which only survivedin a few small isolated areas. Since that time the diet of Mexican people hasalways been unbalanced: deprived of amaranth (which provided lysine, an essen-tial amino acid for synthesizing human proteins), all generations after theConquest suffered from malnutrition.

Amaranth

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The project

Bringing value to amaranth

The process of reviving production of amaranth, undertaken by Alternativas andQualisince 1980, has been a great agricultural success. But the cooperatives havehad to cope with the challenge of commercializing their produce and identifyinginnovative ways of establishing links with new consumers. This is important inboosting and underpinning the whole proposed development model.The research program The rediscovery of amaranth. Technical improvement of

amaranth to support agricultural development in semiarid areas of Mexico, finan-ced by the Cariplo Foundation and the University of Milan, intends to explore twodifferent strategies for promoting amaranth. A study was firstly carried out intothe conventional use of flours in mixtures based on wheat, and then investiga-tions were performed into the non-conventional use of amaranth for produ-cing appetizing and nutritional foods in gluten-free formulations. This is of parti-cular interest for consumers suffering from serious food intolerance. Using a glu-ten-free recipe in products for celiacs meant it was essential to address the issueof traces of gluten in amaranth seeds, other raw materials and finished products.The objective of the first phase of the project was to find and examine a range offoods containing amaranth already on the market in Italy and other countries.

These products-mostly baked products and energy snacks (crackers, cookies, barswith dried fruit and/or chocolate, plain biscuits with puffed cereals) - were cata-loged according to type and amaranth content, assessed by a panel of experttasters and compared with different types of foods produced by Quali. At thesame time some commercial amaranth samples of various origin (Mexican andAustrian) were characterized to evaluate various properties (including composi-tional characteristics and susceptibility towards rancidity) which might affect theiruse as a foodstuff.After this, trials were carried out with the help of a bakery workshop to partiallysubstitute wheat flour with amaranth flour in some traditional Italian sweet andsavory products. The various products were then assessed to see the effect of ama-

ranth on their flavor and properties and to establish a threshold for optimumintegration. These products, which had 20-30% amaranth flour imported fromthe QualiCooperative Group added (a flour called Serina), had good sensory pro-perties. Of particular interest were the savory formulations, such as breadsticks,whose friability did not suffer from the addition of this pseudocereal.In order to expand the range of foods containing amaranth, work was done atthe Department of Food Science and Microbiology (DiSTAM) to prepare amaranthflour by grinding the seed and separating the brain by sifting. This flour was usednot only to make shortbread biscuits based on wheat flour but also niche products

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The project

The process of reviving productionof amaranth, undertaken by

Alternativas and Quali since 1980,has been a great agricultural success.



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The project

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The project also looked at anissue of great interest for theQuali Cooperative Group, inattempting to resolve theserious problems of stabilitywhich affect amaranth seeds.



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typical of some Italian regions such as cornmeal biscuits and biscuits based on che-stnut flour.There have been various proposals for using amaranth in gluten-free products,from simple preparations such as shortbread type biscuits-whose formulation canbe varied by adding drops of chocolate, coconut powder or other ingredients-through to more complex products such as ones based on sponge cake. This typeof baked product, characterized by physical and chemical rising (beating of themix with egg and addition of a chemical leavening agent), would seem ideal forthe production of leavened products which do not contain gluten proteins, andcannot therefore withstand long leavening times. Excellent qualitative and senso-

ry results were obtained by adding 30% amaranth flour to the formulation inste-ad of wheat flour, together with the other ingredients such as sugar, egg mixtu-re, milk proteins and fats.

The project also looked at an issue of great interest for the QualiCooperativeGroup, a producer of puffed amaranth, in attempting to resolve the serious pro-blems of stability which affect amaranth seeds due to rapid oxidation of the lipidfraction. For this purpose, the effectiveness of various heat treatments on the sta-bility of the puffed product were evaluated in close collaboration with the coo-perative. Shelf-life (stability towards rancidity) of puffed seeds was prolonged byincreasing the heat exposure times sufficiently to completely inactivate the enzy-mes responsible for rancidity. It was noted that during commercialization it would

be essential to limit the contact that the product, puffed seed or derived flour hadwith oxygen, by vacuum sealing and packaging so as to limit the exchange of gaswith the outside environment to the maximum extent possible.A priority activity for the program was to train Qualistaff so they could applyessential knowledge to Mexican conditions, enabling them to implement systemsfor quality management at the cooperative and better manage the creation ofboth conventional and innovative new products.In the first part of the project, project leaders from DiSTAM and the Slow FoodFoundation visitedAlternativas and Qualito learn details of the transformation

The project

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Products containing amaranth prepared during the project



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The project

processes used at the cooperative and to improve interaction between the variousorganizations involved. Then technical staff from Qualivisited university depar-tments involved in the project and also various Italian producers-the Slow FoodPresidium for Mondov cornmeal biscuits and the Presidium for dried Calizzanoand Murialdo chestnuts, small artisan workshops and larger companies which stillhave a strong focus on product quality. This enabled Mexican technical staff to seea wide range of products derived from cereals and the processes used to makethem. The objective of these visits was to provide useful instruments which couldenable the product range to be expanded, satisfying consumer requirements bothwithin and outside Mexico.

Training activities also included quality control staff from the QualiCooperativeGroup spending time at Italian university laboratories so they could learn usefulanalytical methods for evaluating the quality of finished products.

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Woman from Mixteca Regionand the several traditional uses

of amaranth



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Amaranth in the kitchenAlegra(recipe for 5 people)

Ingredients:3 tablespoons melted molasses1 cup Qualipuffed amaranth

Preparation:Mix puffed amaranth with warm molasses, stirring the mixture, then press it in amould. Once the mixture has taken the shape of the mould, take it out and cut itin slices while it is still tepid. Eat it when it gets cold. One can also add peanuts totaste.

Potatoes with amaranth(recipe for 6 people)Ingredients:1/2 kilo tomatoes1/2 small onion1 clove of garlic5 potatoes6 tablespoons Qualiamaranth flourSalt and pepper to taste

Preparation:Boil potatoes and cut into cubes. Cook tomatoes and mix with the onion, garlicand amaranth flour into a batter. Fry the batter, then leave fritters until solid andcrisp. Serve fritters with potatoes and season to taste.

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Recipes



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Atole with goyaba(recipe for 5 people)

Ingredients:1 cup Qualiamaranth flour10 ripe guavas1 liter milk2 cups water

Cane sugar to taste

Wash and blend guavas. Heat milk. While milk is heating, mix amaranth flourwith water then add mixture to milk, mixing continuously until dense consisten-cy obtained. Remove mixture from heat and add blended guava. Sweeten to tastewith cane sugar

Atole of amaranth with milk(recipe for 5 people)1/2 cup Qualiamaranth flour1 liter milk2 cups waterCinnamon and cane sugar to tasteCocoa, vanilla or molasses can be added

Heat milk with cinnamon. While milk is heating, mix amaranth flour with water

then add mixture to the milk, mixing continuously until a dense consistency obtai-ned. Add cocoa, vanilla or molasses if desired. Remove from heat and sweeten totaste with cane sugar.

Recipes



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Editing:

Andrea Amato, Ral Hernndez Garciadiego, Gisela Herreras Guerra,Mara Lucisano, M. Ambrogina Pagani, Manuela Mariotti

Translations:Ronnie Richards, Linda Kay

Photography:Alternativas and Qualiarchives

Slow Food archivesMara Lucisano - Distam archives

Graphic Design:

Claudia Saglietti

Slow Food Foundation for BiodiversityOfficial Headquarters

Accademia dei GeorgofiliPiazzale degli Uffizi

50122 Firenze

Operational HeadquartersSlow Food

Via della Mendicit Istruita 1412042 Bra (CN)

Tel. +39 0172 419701fax +39 0172 419725

[email protected]



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The Rediscovery of Amaranth

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