Dry edible beans like pinto beans, navy beans, black beans, garbanzo beans and kidney beans are widely consumed across the United States in households, restaurants, flour mills and snack foods manufacturing. According to a 2021 report, United States Bean Market, prepared by market research and consulting firm Renub Research, the dry bean market in the U.S. is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.93 percent between 2021 and 2027. Factors driving the growth in U.S. dry bean consumption include widespread interest in ethnic foods featuring cooked dry beans, rising immigration particularly among the Hispanic population, and changes in Americans’ dietary awareness trending towards a more vegetarian lifestyle including the consumption of plant-based proteins.
Many fast-food restaurants have expanded their offerings of vegetarian and vegan meal combinations, which has created expanded opportunities for dry bean processors to provide fully-cooked and ready-to-eat dry bean products. This includes R.S. Hanline & Company (R.S. Hanline). As one of the largest fresh produce distributors in the Eastern and Midwestern United States, since 1986 the company has become a trusted fresh produce supplier to some of the most reputable food service, retail, food manufacturing and wholesale distribution companies in the U.S. R.S. Hanline recently expanded its production capabilities to include a state-of-the-art fully-automated, continuous-process soak-cook-chill-IQF (individual quick freezing) line for processing dry beans into fully-cooked, ready-to-eat products.