November 5, 2025
The campaign “Bang in Some Beans,” launched today, is a clear signal that demand can be reframed, offering clues on how to shift consumer habits in high-income markets where pulses have long sat on the margins — and a model that could influence trade, processing, and long-term consumption well beyond their borders.
How to reframe pulses for growth. In the UK, a modest yet bold campaign is re-imagining the humble bean: not just a cheap staple, but a key to healthier diets, climate action and business opportunity.
The Food Foundation and Veg Power, backed by Beans is How — the global initiative housed within the SDG2 Advocacy Hub coalition of 120+ partners in 70+ countries — have just launched a new UK-wide initiative with one simple mission: to get people eating more pulses. In a country where average bean and pulse consumption hovers around 28 g per person per day, well below recommended fibre intake, the campaign is testing how to turn a nutritional and climate-smart food into a desirable, everyday ingredient.
The strategy is built on mainstreaming. Through chef ambassadors, school-based cooking sessions, recipe-sharing on social media, and coordinated action across retailers, food manufacturers, and caterers, “Bang in Some Beans” aims to make it easy, fun, and normal to add pulses to meals, from breakfasts to snacks to restaurant menus.
The tone is intentionally informal and upbeat: pulses are delicious, affordable, sustainable, and even a little cheeky. This shift in voice and visibility shows how pulses can be repositioned in markets where they’ve long been pigeonholed as either “health food” or overly humble.
Reformulate and innovate to include more pulses. Here the strategy is to position them as mainstream, appealing, and directly relevant to key consumer concerns: health, value, climate.
For the global pulse industry, this isn’t just a feel-good PR moment. It’s a signal that demand in mature markets can be reshaped — provided the product is linked to consumer priorities like gut health, value for money, climate action, and convenience. That, in turn, opens opportunities for processors and exporters to diversify supply, from ready-to-eat packs and ambient meals to snacks and blended proteins.
In many high-income countries, pulses remain niche (linked to ethnic cuisines or budget cooking) or misunderstood (low awareness of their role in fibre, soil health, and emissions reduction). This campaign instead positions them as mainstream, versatile, and directly relevant to modern food concerns. And if pulses can be repositioned in developed markets, that opens space for growth — not only in volume but also in product innovation and value-added supply chains. The campaign’s reach into schools, food service, retail, and manufacturing reflects this potential.
But even a well-designed campaign meets real-world limits. The UK’s current pulse consumption is low, and the behaviour gap is visible: according to a 2024 UK consumer survey by Eating Better, 73% of respondents say beans are healthy, but only one in four eat them twice or more a week. Limited product diversity, patchy retail visibility, and entrenched culinary habits all slow progress. And while the UK has domestic bean production, imports play a large role, raising both opportunities and questions about supply consistency, origin transparency, and pricing if demand rises fast.
For producers, processors, traders, and importers, “Bang in Some Beans” offers a real-time model of how to elevate pulses from commodity status into a strategic food choice in affluent markets. It suggests that supply-side actions — varietal development, import strategies, value addition — increasingly need to be paired with storytelling, product innovation, and partnerships across retail, policy, and food service.
If successful, this approach could diversify demand channels, reduce dependence on traditional pulse markets, and stimulate investment in processing, packaging, new product formats, and even emerging production regions.
Yet the industry must move with nuance. What works in the UK will need tailoring elsewhere: diets, food culture, trade rules, and supply chains vary widely. Still, the wider message resonates. Pulses are not destined only for food-security campaigns in the Global South; they have a claim in advanced economies too. When the story is well told, the formats are ready to use, and the value chain is aligned, even a familiar crop like beans can stage a comeback.
By reconnecting people to an old crop through modern channels, “Bang in Some Beans” may offer a preview of how the pulse industry can ignite a new quiet revolution — one that could spark a shift not just in London cafés, schools, or influencer feeds, but in supply chains and on dinner plates worldwide.
Disclaimer: The opinions or views expressed in this publication are those of the authors or quoted persons. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Global Pulse Confederation or its members.
