A review of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) value chain: Postharvest handling, processing, and processed products

Lentils (Lens culinaris Medik.) are grown worldwide in diverse agroecological regions with significant global production and trade. Since early 2000s, lentils production and consumption have been growing beyond its traditional areas of production and utilization, notably in USA, Canada, Australia, UK, and many European Union countries. Lentils are a rich source of protein, minerals, and many bioactive compounds. Therefore, lentil‐based products can offer a healthy food choice for all consumers, including those who are vegetarian or vegans, and/or looking for meat protein alternatives due to health and/or environmental concerns. In order to avail all the benefits that lentils offer, a quality maintenance approach is essential across value‐chain operations of postharvest handling, storage, and value‐added processing. In recent years, lentils have been used increasingly in a variety of value‐added products and cuisines in the developed countries. Different processing methods, for example, cooking, autoclaving, extrusion, baking, roasting, fermentation, and sprouting, significantly improve protein bioavailability, total digestibility, and overall nutritional and organoleptic quality. A number of traditional and innovative processing techniques also have been used to produce lentil‐based end‐products or ingredients for various food applications. Overall, lentils are well positioned as a food legume crop to cater to emerging trends among consumers, especially those looking for healthy food choices, an alternative plant‐based protein for global food security, and foods that are produced in environmentally friendly and agriculturally sustainable manner. Significant production and consumption trends for lentils clearly demonstrate enhanced value for consumers and further impact in contributions to a nutritious global food supply.

growth of 10.3% since mid-1960s. Canada ranks first in lentil production, with 2.87 million metric tons (MMT), thus contributing about 44% of 6.54 MMT global production in 2020, followed by India, Australia, Turkey, and USA with 1.18, 0.53, 0.37, and 0.34 MMT, respectively. These five countries accounted for 82% of the total global output (FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization, 2021).
Region-wise, production is led by Americas (with about 50% share of global tonnage), followed by Asia (38%), and Oceania (8%). Traditionally, India has been the foremost lentil producer but, in the last two decades, Australia, Canada, and U.S.A. have shown exceptional growth in lentil production as exhibited by about 220%, 210%, and 145% increases, respectively.
Nutritionally, lentils are an excellent source of protein (about 25%) and selected micronutrients, that is, minerals (calcium, iron, potassium, and zinc) and vitamins (vitamin A, vitamin C, and niacin).
Lentil proteins have superior profile as compared to some other legumes, for example, peas and chickpeas. Moreover, lentils are an excellent source of dietary fiber (11% in green and 31% in red/pink lentils), slowly digestible starch, and several bioactive phytochemicals with reported health benefits. Although lentils contain around 60% carbohydrates, it is worthwhile to note that those carbohydrates are somewhat slowly digested in gut resulting in a low glycemic index of about 30, compared to reference 100 for white wheat bread (Dhull et al., 2022;Sidhu et al., 2022). Gowder (2015) reported that the consumption of lentil proteins or use of lentil proteins as a substitute to animal protein results in numerous positive health effects, i.e., mitigation and protection against diabetes, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases. Lentil proteins are gaining increasing attention with respect to value-added utilization in diverse food applications, especially as plant-based meat alternatives/extenders.
A Farm to Fork quality maintenance approach must be employed across the value-chain operations of lentil production, postharvest handling and value-added processing (Joshi et al., 2017). The quality management of lentils starts in the field with the application of preharvest treatment of crop by desiccants, which makes lentils achieve uniform maturity, improve harvest efficiency, maximize crop yield, and enhance postharvest quality. Maintenance of lentil quality during postharvest handling and storage is critical for the economic value and consumers' acceptance of end-products. Red and green types of lentils are the most widely consumed varieties of this food legume.
Lentils or lentil-based ingredients are used in diverse products, such as snack foods, flour mixes/doughs, ready-to-eat soups, baked goods, gluten-free products, and ethnic cuisines (Figure 1). Dhull et al. (2022) reported that various processing methods, such as cooking, autoclaving, extrusion, baking, roasting, germination, and fermentation, generally improve protein digestibility. Processing of legumes, like lentils, is also necessary to inactivate or significantly reduce antinutritional factors, for example, phytic acid, protease and amylase inhibitors, lectins, raffinose family oligosaccharides, and saponins (Patterson et al., 2017). This article provides an overview of lentil's postharvest quality management, postharvest handling, storage and losses, quality standards, value-added processing, lentil-based products, and innovative and emerging technologies for lentil processing.

| POSTHARVEST HANDLING OPERATIONS
Careful handling and appropriate postharvest storage are required for most legume crops, before marketing and consumption. Jones et al. (2012) noted that the major goals of legume grain handling, drying to a safe moisture level, and storage protocols are to maximize preservation and ensure end-quality. These goals are achieved by removing impurities, foreign matter, identifying and separating lots based on quality characteristics, drying (where needed), storing in appropriate facilities, monitoring storage conditions, and ensuring cleanliness and hygiene protocols for products, personnel, and facilities. Postharvest quality and quantity losses can occur due to improper handling, poor drying, and/or lack of proper storage facilities. The critical quality defect of damaged seed coat is impacted at all stages of harvest, handling, and storage. It is very important to minimize impact damage and seed coat abrasion at every phase of handling/transfer because the quality deterioration is cumulative and cannot be corrected or reversed. Damaged seed coats directly affect seed appearance and are generally indicative of overall quality due to associated adverse impact on cooking characteristics. This quality indicator commands much value and has economic consequences throughout the supply chain.
F I G U R E 1 Quality attributes and food product uses of major lentil types Source: Based on Pulse Canada (2012) Figure 2 shows common postharvest operations for food legumes, such as lentils, with respect to receiving and cleaning before storage,nd packaging and warehousing of clean, graded grains, either for direct marketing or value-added processing. Uebersax, Siddiq, Cramer, and Bales (2022) reported that the overall final quality of pulses was mainly related to a control of critical chemical, physical, and biological processes during postharvest handling/storage and for ensuring safe and best-quality end-products. Quality of lentils, which is vulnerable to several problems during storage (insects, molds, rodents, and fluctuations in the storage conditions), requires implementation of appropriate safety protocols during postharvest storage of lentils.

| DryingÀoptimum storage moisture and quality
Typically, lentils require some form of drying to achieve optimum moisture level (13-14%) for effective storage and quality maintenance. The drying method employed should be according to the requirements and considerations related to the lentils' end-use quality attributes (Ghosh et al., 2007). It is recommended that threshed lentils have around 16-18% moisture. Lantin et al. (1996) reported that since the moisture level of harvested lentils is generally higher than that suitable for long-term storage, some degree of drying (usually with heated air) is employed. In developing countries, some postharvest losses also occur during traditional threshing of lentils, whereas such losses are minimal with mechanized harvesting and threshing in developed countries.
Lentil moisture content of closer to 20% presents some challenges as the crop is difficult to thresh without some degree of damage to lentil seeds. Furthermore, seed with ≥18% moisture requires higher energy input due to longer drying times, which can also be potentially detrimental to the quality (McVicar, 2006;SPG, 2012). It is worthwhile to note that, to maintain safe storage and optimum quality, some type of aeration may be needed to reduce grain temperature in the bins even when the crop is harvested at dry stage (Barker, 2016).
When mechanical drying is needed to lower moisture content of lentils to $14%, the hot-air temperature in the dryer should not exceed 45 C to avoid seed shrinkage and preserve its germination capability. For red lentil, buyers and processors prefer 13% seed moisture content, which improves the efficiency of dehulling/splitting processes which ensures better quality (SPG, 2012). For automated drying, the use of batch dryers is time consuming and drying efficiency is also relatively low. Typically, continuous air-flow dryers are used for grain (legumes) drying, which could be cross-flow, counterflow, or concurrent-flow with respect to the direction of air-flow (Jones et al., 2012).

| Storage conditions and shelf life
The most important determinants of grain quality during postharvest storage are moisture level of lentils, relative humidity (RH), storage temperature, and aeration. Bradford et al. (2018) reported that storage life at a given moisture content increases exponentially as both the storage temperature and equilibrium RH decrease. Bello and Bradford (2016) indicated that below 95% RH, the seed respiration stops, and bacteria are unable to grow below $90% RH. Fungi are unable to grow and generally lose metabolic active below 65% RH, which closely corresponds with the recommended maximum moisture content of 12-14%, 13-15%, and 6-9% for safe storage of cereals, pulses, and oilseed crops, respectively (Bradford et al., 2018;FAO, 2014). Besides quality deterioration induced by microbes and insects, other specific quality changes that occur during storage are related to flavor deterioration, seed coat discoloration and hard-tocook defect (i.e., slow water uptake and longer cooking time). All these defects have been reported to result in a substantial quality loss in legumes (Bello & Bradford, 2016;Uebersax, Siddiq, & Borbi, 2022).
Storage of lentils at 14% moisture is recommended for safe, longterm storage for the control of damage to the seed coat during handling. At 14% moisture and 15 C storage temperature, lentils can be stored safely for up to 40 weeks, as shown in Table 1 (Barker, 2016;McVicar, 2006). Regardless of the storage temperature, the storage F I G U R E 2 Postharvest value-chain operations for raw legumes Source: Adapted from Uebersax, Siddiq, Cramer, and Bales (2022) life decreases significantly at moisture contents above 16%. Peace et al. (1988) noted that appropriate storage conditions for lentils are 20 C temperature and 12% RH, which do not incur any significant negative impact on protein quality for up to 3 years. Lentils are susceptible to increased chipping and peeling if handled or kept at or below $20 C (SPG, 2012). Ghosh et al. (2007) reported that longterm storage, especially above 25 C, can results in darker color lentils, possibly from seed coat tannins' oxidation. Such darkening or discoloration of lentils severely reduces their quality and market value. Overall, storage-related damage and contamination of lentils can be controlled or reduced following good handling and monitoring protocols (Uebersax, Siddiq, Cramer, & Bales, 2022).
It is recommended that farmers should not mix lentils from successive years, to avoid having the entire batch downgraded. Since lentils with green seed coat are prone to discoloration during extended storage, green lentils should not be stored for more than 1 year to minimize or avoid excessive discoloration and downgrading their marketability (SPG, 2012).

| Postharvest quality defects
Lentils require careful postharvest handling and maintaining optimum storage conditions (storage temperature and RH) to assure the high quality required for subsequent processing and utilization. Adverse storage conditions and their fluctuations are reported to induce a number of quality defects in legumes, for example, lower water uptake and prolonged cooking time as well as lower digestibility and bioavailability of nutrients (Paredes-Lopez et al., 1989;Uebersax, Siddiq, & Borbi, 2022). Furthermore, storage for a long-term can induce seed discoloration to darker color, stemming from oxidation of seed coat phenolics/tannins, thereby reducing the quality and market value of lentils (Ghosh et al., 2007). Numerous studies have shown that adverse storage conditions result in storage-induced hard-to-cook (HTC) condition in legumes, including lentils, producing in a substantial quality loss (Bhatty, 1990;Cenkowski & Sosulski, 1997). Optimum storage conditions can control legume seed quality loss, with seed moisture, storage temperature, RH, and storage duration considered the main parameters of interest (Uebersax, Siddiq, & Borbi, 2022). A summary of storage induced defects in legumes and their effect on quality is presented in Table 2.

| VALUE-ADDED PROCESSING
Lentil is a very versatile crop among legumes, and it is well-suited for processing and diverse food applications. Most of the lentil consumption continues to be in the form of traditional cooking and processed products. Lentils are relatively quick and simple to prepare in comparison to most other food legumes. However, there are wide variations in consumption trends across different countries. Some of these variations are based on the type of lentil consumed rather than the culinary method or products prepared. Red and Green lentils are the widely used lentil types in most countries with regular lentil intake, whereas Yellow and Spanish Brown lentils are consumed in relatively few countries (Siva et al., 2017;Thavarajah et al., 2008). Typically, red/yellow lentils are commonly used in Asian and Middle Eastern foods. Green lentils are eaten as whole seeds or as dehulledsplit form while red lentils are generally dehulled before cooking and consumption (Siva et al., 2017). Black lentils, somewhat lesser known commercially, are smaller, look like caviar, and are nicknamed Beluga. Lentils can be processed by a variety of methods to produce various ingredients and end-products. The flowchart presented in Figure 3 outlines ingredients and products obtained from value-added processing of lentils.
Therefore, appropriate traditional or innovative processing techniques must be used to reduce or completely eliminate antinutrients in lentils.
This role is particularly helpful to improve the acceptance of lentil products by consumers.

| Dehusking/dehulling and splitting
The seed coat removal, referred to as "dehulling" or "dehusking" are reported to improve the palatability and flavor of legumes. The seed coat (testa) of food legumes, which is rich in tannins, has a somewhat bitter taste and is indigestible (Dhull et al., 2022). Besides improving sensory quality (flavor), dehulling also improves water absorption during soaking/cooking and thereby reducing cooking time significantly.
Dehulling, followed by splitting (i.e., separation of cotyledons) is a common practice to satisfy consumer preference for most market classes of lentils (Joshi et al., 2017;Singh & Singh, 1992

| Cooking (thermal processing)
Cooking, similar to other pulses, is the most common method to prepare lentils for consumption. Generally, lentils do not require soaking but a short-time soak of about 10-15 min is helpful in cleaning any surface dust and aids in partial water uptake. Lentils, especially, dehulled and split red type, are cooked fully in about 15-20 min in boiling water. Whole lentils (both red and green types) require 25-30 min of cooking in boiling water (Sidhu et al., 2022).
The amount of water added for cooking can be adjusted for desired consistency of cooked lentils, thereby eliminating any need to drain excess water upon cooking. If water is drained off, it results in the partial loss of water-soluble nutrients. For example, for a thin or soup-like consistency, more water is added than for a thick or pudding-like product.
Thermally processed lentils, in canned form, are marketed in some developed countries; however, traditional cooking methods and cuisines continue to be the main lentil utilization in most of the other countries in Asia and Africa (Sidhu et al., 2022). Since lentils in containers are a low-acid food, that is, pH > 4.6, processing of cans or pouches is typically done in steam or water at temperatures of 116-125 C (under pressure, in retorts). Thermal processing of lentils either in containers or in boiling water provides advantages of meeting desired sensory characteristics and reducing antinutritional factors. Canned foods, including canned legumes, are erroneously perceived by consumers to have a lower quality. This erroneous consumer perception that canned legume products is often associated with concerns of decreased nutritive value due to over-cooking. This may be further expressed as over-packaging in rigid steel containers.
These perceptions must be overcome through education that demonstrate the value of recycled steel can packaging and full awareness of the value of safe (food and water) and convenient prepared canned foods. A comprehensive review of the value of processed foods provides increased understanding this consumer misconception (Weaver et al., 2014). However, to overcome this "rigid can" F I G U R E 3 Typical lentil processing techniques for producing value-added ingredients Source: Dhull et al. (2022) marketing perception, lentils could be thermally processed in multilayer flexible pouches, since in-pouch foods have grown in popularity and acceptance among consumers due to their convenience and ease of use. Nosworthy et al. (2018) observed that the protein quality, assessed as in vitro digestibility level, was improved after cooking of both red and green lentils. A substantial increase in resistant starch (RS) was also noted after cooking (Wang et al., 2009) but fat, ash content (selected minerals), and total carbohydrates were reduced in cooked lentils (Dueñas et al., 2016). Cooking also has a positive effect in reducing or eliminating a number of antinutrient, for example, protease inhibitors (trypsin inhibitors), flatulence-causing oligosaccharides, and phytic acid contents. Pal et al. (2017) observed that trypsin inhibitors were inactivated significantly (up to $85%) after cooking in boiling water. An earlier investigation by Vidal-Valverde et al. (1994), reported a complete inactivation of trypsin inhibitors and $40% reduction in phytic acid content after 30-min cooking (boiling) of pre-soaked lentils. The oligosaccharides were reported to be reduced by cooking of pre-soaked lentils, due primarily to leaching into soak/cook water (Wang et al., 2009). Hefnawy (2011) observed that microwave cooking and autoclaving also reduced the trypsin inhibitors activity, and phytic acid and tannins content significantly.

| Milling (flour, fractions, and isolates)
Milling is one of the common processes for the production of lentil flour, both from whole and dehulled seeds. Dhull et al. (2022) reported that dry or wet milled lentil can be used to obtain flour and fractions (protein-and starch-rich) with excellent quality parameters.
The milling method employed significantly affects most of the functional properties of lentil flours, isolates, and fractions. Therefore, milling process parameters must be assessed carefully to produce flours and fractions before their usage in diverse food applications.
For effective utilization of lentil flour in different foods, it can be further fractionated into protein-and starch-rich components using water or solvent extraction (Dhull et al., 2022). Funke et al. (2022) noted that production of protein and starch ingredients using dry fractionation has gained increasing attention in recent years, mainly as an alternative to solvent extraction for producing sustainable ingredients from legumes; thus, dry fractionation can also be used for lentils.
Milling processing has a significant effect on nutritional composition and antinutrients' content/activity of legume flour or fractions. foods, for example, bakery, extruded, soups, meat, and dairy applications (Dhull et al., 2022). Table 3 presents a summary of selected functional characteristics of lentil flour with respect to their relationship to the lentil-based products' quality.

T A B L E 3 A summary of functional properties and applications of lentil flour (LF)
Functional property

Food products and % LF level Quality attributes
Water absorption capacity (WAC) • Baked products (<30%) -Improvement of viscosity  Berrios et al. (2022) reported that extrusion technology can be used to produce lentil flours possessing variable functional properties, by manipulating extrusion parameters of feed rate, moisture level, and barrel internal temperature. Extrusion is a useful processing method that converts raw flours and granules into fully-cooked end-products or ready-to-use extrudates or ingredients. Extruded products are of low-moisture and shelf-stable, requiring no additional preservatives (Berrios et al., 2022). However, to retard deterioration, extruded lentil products must be stored and marketed in moisture-and oxygenbarrier packaging. Extrusion processing has been used to prepare a variety of lentil-based products or ingredients, for example, snacks Extrusion has a significant positive impact on the nutrients and antinutrients profile of extruded products from lentils (Gonzalez & Perez, 2002;Lazou & Krokida, 2010). Rathod and Annapure (2017) observed that extrusion enhanced the in vitro protein and starch bioavailability and digestibility in lentil noodles, without any changes in total protein content. Furthermore, extrusion significantly reduced different antinutrients, for example, protease inhibitors, phytic acid, and tannins-all by over 98%. Besides inactivation of lectins, extrusion was shown to result in improved amino acid score and true digestibility percentage of protein in green lentil flour (Nosworthy et al., 2018).

| Baking, roasting and frying
Commercially, baking and roasting of lentils are not very common, although fried lentils are available in some ready-to-eat snack mixes in South-Asia, especially, India and Pakistan. Nonetheless, lentil-based baked and roasted products have a great potential to be commercialized owing to their high-protein and very low-fat concentration. The feasibility of lentil and bean flours in baked bread dough product (rolls) was studied by Kohajdová et al. (2013). Farinographic characteristics and baking behavior of wheat flour, replaced with 10, 20, or 30% of lentil and some common bean flours, were assessed. Adding legume flours resulted in improved water absorption capacity to 74.90% (from 58.50% in control sample) and the time of dough development to 5.5 min (from 3.5 min); however, dough stability declined to 2.3 min from 6.7 min. The addition of both lentil and bean flours showed a negative effect on the physical quality of baked rolls, including reduced specific volume and cambering. Based on sensory assessment, the best quality baked rolls were produced with 90:10 wheatlegume flour blend. Substitutions with higher than 10% lentil or bean flour had an adverse effect on the crust color, shape, crumb elasticity, and texture of baked rolls.
The addition of lentil flour in two types of cakes (layer and sponge), and the resulting changes in the batter characteristics and of the final product were studied by de la Hera et al. (2012). Lentil flour addition improved batter viscosity in both types of cake formulations.
The batter density for both types of cakes was lower with 100% lentil flour or higher with 1:1 lentil-wheat flours, than that of the control cakes made with 100% wheat flour. Increased firmness was observed in layer cake with lentil flour, and this effect was more pronounced in 100% lentil flour cake.
Roasting effect, along with that of cooking and fermentation, on the physical and compositional quality of selected legumes' flours and their application was investigated by Baik and Han (2012). Roasting

| Germination and fermentation
Germination and fermentation are useful for improving the nutritional and sensory properties of legumes. Dhull et al. (2022) noted that germination of lentils is a traditional and economical process for improving health benefits by enhancing the nutritional profile, antioxidative potential, and reducing the antinutrients. Ghumman et al. (2016) revealed that germination of lentil seeds resulted in notable changes in nutritional quality, particularly, by reducing carbohydrates and lipid content and by increasing in crude protein content. Reduction in carbohydrate content is attributed to the activation of endogenous enzymes, such as glucosidase, and αand β-amylases. The hydrolytic enzymes during germination convert starch into mono-or oligo-saccharides, which decreases the overall starch content. Dueñas et al. (2016) showed that germination of lentils reduced non-starch carbohydrates, namely, insoluble, soluble, and total dietary fibers. Flour produced from germinated lentil exhibited improved breakdown viscosity, foaming, and water absorption capacities; however, emulsification activity decreased in comparison to the control sample (Ghumman et al., 2016).

| EMERGING RESEARCH TRENDS
Lentil is a least researched crop among common beans and pulses; therefore, emphasis should be on lentil value chain (LVC) research, especially in breeding strategy to develop varieties with high yield.
The research should focus on LVC using a holistic approach that allows sustainability mechanisms. Modern tools and techniques of biotechnology should be used for developing varieties with novel traits that will make them "climate smart" (Kaale et al., 2022). A number of innovative technologies have been introduced in recent years for food processing/preservation and enhancement of physico-chemical, and sensory quality of food products. These technologies include high pressure processing, ultrafiltration, ionizing radiation, ultraviolet radiation, pulsed electric field, pulsed light treatment, ohmic heating, and ultrasound treatment (Ahmed, 2018;Gharibzahedi & Smith, 2020;Guillermic et al., 2021;Najib et al., 2022;Tokuşo glu & Swanson, 2014). These innovative processing technologies can be applied for processing of food legumes, including lentils. However, it is noteworthy that the exploration of most of the innovative processing technologies is mostly at research and development stages.
Therefore, it is suggested that further research on optimization of processing conditions and quality assessment of produced lentil ingredients and products can help towards commercial application of such technologies. varied as a function of pulse type and the process used. Lv et al. (2018) investigated supercritical fluid (CO 2 ) extrusion (SCFX) to process a powdered blend of lentil flour and pregelatinized potato starch, which was extruded at of 95-99.5 C and 40-120 rpm screw speeds. The density, expansion ratio, degree of porosity, water solubility, and rehydration capacity were improved with increasing screw speed (40 to 120 rpm). SCFX resulted in an increase of the transition temperature of starch and protein in lentil flour, and increased screw speed significantly increased starch gelatinization. No retrogradation of starch, which is common in traditionally cooked lentils, was noticed in the extruded red lentil products stored at 4 C for 60 days.
Trypsin inhibitor activity was shown to decrease significantly with the higher screw speed. The DPPH antioxidant activity in SCFX sample enhanced, respectively, by 30% and 18%. Gharibzahedi and Smith (2020) showed that the sonication or high-intensity ultrasound (HIU) treatment was an efficient technique to break disulfide bonds without requiring reducing agents. The HIU processing treatment was shown to reduce particle size and viscosity of proteins dispersions. Microwave-assisted infrared (MW-IR) heating is an innovative drying technique that significantly reduces the drying time, thereby maintaining a better quality of the dried food products (Najib et al., 2022

| LENTIL-BASED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
The traditional utilization of lentils is primarily in home-prepared cuisines. In many least-developed countries in Asia and Africa, lentils and other food legumes are recognized as a major source of protein and part of traditional cuisines that are consumed regularly. However, research and development efforts have been made in recent years to formulate lentil-based products, which were prepared using whole or dehulled lentil flours. Selected examples of such products included pan/flat bread (Asadi et al., 2021), crackers (Yaver, 2022), extruded snacks (Li et al., 2022), puffed snacks (Guillermic et al., 2021), lentilpotato extruded snacks (Lv et al., 2018), Besides flour, lentil protein isolates or concentrates can be incorporated in developing new lentilbased products. In particular, lentil protein isolates have a great potential for use in energy drinks and dairy-based beverages, and glutenfree snacks.
Current and some potential applications for using lentil protein, starch, and fiber ingredients include (1) flour mixes, doughs, and baked products; (2) dairy foods applications; (3) gluten-free products; (4) snack products; and (5) meat alternatives and meat extenders. Lentils possess excellent functional properties for use in these valueadded products. Red lentils are particularly suitable for developing lentil-based new products, especially for applications as a source of meat alternative protein for use in meat analogs and related products.
Since protein isolates from red lentil possess natural red color, it makes them suitable for mimicking meat color and avoiding the use of added synthetic colors, which have been reported to have potential food safety issues and negative consumer response (Arshad et al., 2022;Jarpa-Parra, 2018;Lee et al., 2021). Lentil-based glutenfree products (e.g., pasta and snacks) are commercially produced and Development and commercial production of lentil ingredients, particularly, novel starches, protein isolates/concentrates and dietary fibers can not only offer healthy food options to consumers but economic return to all stakeholders across lentil value chain, i.e., growers, processors, foodservice establishments, supply chain, marketers, and consumers.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.