Peas that don't taste like peas could replace soya in UK

If you don't find the taste of peas a-PEA-lling, then perhaps these might be up your street?

Scientists in the UK are creating peas that don't taste like peas - yep you heard us!

As more and more people are choosing to eat plant-based food and drinks, instead of meat and dairy, scientists in the UK want to create a more environmentally-friendly alternative to things like soya beans.

This is because soya bean farming has been linked to the destruction of rainforests and habitats in places like South America.

UK scientists have been looking at the humble pea as a replacement, however, peas have quite a strong flavour which might not be to everybody's taste, so researchers are looking at creating a flavourless pea!

Soya crops surround a patch of jungle in the Amazon rainforest

In the UK people and businesses buy in around four million tonnes of soya a year from other countries, to eat, and to feed animals.

Around half a million tonnes of that is used specifically for vegan and vegetarian food, according to Innovate UK - a government research company.

This research project is part of a new government scheme to put money into finding plant-based alternatives that can be grown in the UK, instead of buying them in from other countries and importing them.

It's hoped that this could help reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions created from the food industry, for example by cutting the fuel needed to transport food around the world.

Researchers in Norwich have the world's most diverse collection of wild pea varieties. One has a gene that gets rid of pea flavour

Around 30 years ago scientists in the UK were studying pea plants, when they discovered a gene for pea flavour. Genes are part of the instructions that make up all living organisms.

However at that time, there was no use for their findings, so the research was stopped. Now it could be the start of a whole new industry.

"The world has changed. People increasingly want plant-based protein in their diets rather than from animals. So flavourless peas have suddenly become flavour of the day," said Prof Claire Domoney of the John Innes Centre (JIC), one of the scientists working on the project.

Prof Claire Domoney was one of the origional researchers who made the flavourless pea discovery in the 1990s

The research is being led by a Belfast-based plant breeding company, called Germinal.

Once scientists find a variety of pea plant that works the best, it will then go through a number of tests including being grown in fields, to test if it can be grown by farmers in real world conditions - not just in a science lab.

The tests will be carried out by the Processor and Growers Research Organisation.

So, in the future you could be eating pea burgers that don't taste like peas!