Starter Kit. Idea 494 of 500. Cluster 27
Jackfruit-seed and breadfruit flour, gluten-free, for the bakeries of Europe
The mechanism, from the book
Fruit the world wants, sold in a heap by the road. Grading, a name and a cold box make the heap an export and the season a reason to visit.
The first step
Dry and mill a small batch of jackfruit seeds and breadfruit, and ask a food laboratory to test it, including whether it is free of gluten. Bake a loaf and a biscuit with it and note how it behaves. Send samples with the test results to two gluten-free bakeries or flour importers in Europe, and ask what they need. The proof is a paid trial order.
- Who pays first
- A gluten-free bakery or flour importer in Europe that wants a new flour with a story behind it.
- What leaves today
- Jackfruit seeds and breadfruit earn little at home; milled and tested here, they can leave as a flour with a foreign price.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask how a flour is tested before it can be called gluten-free.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which bakeries and importers in Europe look for gluten-free flours.
Check before you spend
Confirm a laboratory test of every batch before it is called gluten-free, clean drying and milling, and the labelling rules of the buying country.
Find out these three numbers
- What do bakeries in Europe pay per kilo for gluten-free flour?
- How much flour does a kilo of seeds make?
- What does a laboratory test cost for each batch?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.