We're on a mission
Inspire people to eat more chickpeas and other beans
Good for your health. Good for the planet's health. Yet here in the US, 80% of the population doesn’t eat enough of them. We're doing our part by turning chickpeas into the foods we all love most.
So, why chickpeas?
They capture nitrogen from the air and release it back into the soil, which reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers and helps other plants grow.
Source: Pulses.org
They require less water than most protein sources including beef, eggs, poultry and milk.
Source: Our World In Data
They provide significant crop diversification for farmers, helping them employ sustainable farming methods.
Source: Pulses.org
They capture nitrogen from the air and release it back into the soil, which reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers and helps other plants grow.
Source: Pulses.org
They require less water than most protein sources including beef, eggs, poultry and milk.
Source: Our World In Data
They provide significant crop diversification for farmers, helping them employ sustainable farming methods.
Source: Pulses.org
Chickpeas. That’s how it all started.
Well, not exactly.
It also included a wine bottle and a knife in the very first attempt to make pasta from chickpeas. The recipe came together in the Detroit kitchen of co-founder Brian Rudolph in 2013.
The first batch wasn’t great. It wasn’t even good. But the fire was lit. Brian loved pasta and he was eating it multiple times a week, but he wanted something different. He wanted something better. Better for his health and for the environment.
Chickpeas might as well have superpowers. They're considered both a protein and a vegetable source, which makes them naturally higher in protein and fiber. Eating more beans, like chickpeas, is correlated with long-term health benefits, like reduced risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
If you could figure out how to make pasta from chickpea flour that wasn’t just good for you, but tasted good, wouldn’t that be good for everyone?
So Brian kept going. He upgraded to a pawn store-purchased pasta maker, experimented with different ratios, and realized precision was key. Yet, the texture wasn’t quite there. So he went to Whole Foods and purchased all the gluten free baking ingredients he could find. And then the ta-da moment. Banza pasta was officially born.
Now it was time to bring Banza from a Detroit kitchen to your kitchen. To help make that possible, Brian enlisted his older brother Scott to team up and figure out how to get Banza into grocery stores across the country. There was so much brotherly love that Scott ultimately left his Wall Street job to grow the company and the orange box officially hit the shelves.
Our Product Values
Our bright orange box starts in Montana.
We source our chickpeas primarily from Central Montana. One of our core partners is Flat Acre Farms, a fifth-generation family-farm in Chester, Montana that’s owned and operated by Tyler and Jill Streit, who we’ve worked with for the past 7 years.
Tyler’s great-grandparents started farming in the early 1900s. They were solely growing wheat and barley until Jill and Tyler took over the farm in 2008. They were looking for a way to conserve moisture in the soil, so they added pulses like peas and lentils into their crop rotation, which reduced their dependency on some chemical practices, increased the diversity of their crop rotation, and aided in their path to improving soil health. They incorporated chickpeas to the rotation in 2010.
Today, the Streits grow 19 different crop varieties, including chickpeas, lentils and peas, and are encouraging other farmers to incorporate legumes into their rotations, too
Our chickpea lifecycle
Certifications and Allergen Info
| Type | Gluten-Free Certified | Non-GMO Certified | Kosher | Low Glycemic Index | Allergens in Product | Manufactured on shared equipment with | Allergens present in manufacturing facility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Pasta Shapes | Made in Italy: Milk. Made in U.S.: None |
Milk |
| Type | Gluten-Free Certified | Non-GMO Certified | Kosher | Low Glycemic Index | Allergens in Product | Manufactured on shared equipment with | Allergens present in manufacturing facility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elbows & Yellow Shells & Yellow Shells & White Elbows & White |
Milk | Milk | Egg, Fish, Milk, Mustard, Peanuts, Shellfish, Soy, Tree Nuts, Wheat |
||||
| Elbows & Yellow Deluxe Elbows & White Deluxe |
Milk | Milk | Milk | ||||
| Shells & Yellow Deluxe | Milk | Milk, Mustard | Milk, Mustard | ||||
| Plant-Based Yellow Plant-Based White |
Milk, Egg, Wheat, Soy, Sulfites, Mustard, Sesame |
Milk, Egg, Fish, Tree Nuts, Wheat, Soy, Sulfites, Mustard, Sesame |
|||||
| Plant-Based Deluxe Yellow | Milk, Mustard | Milk, Mustard | |||||
| Micro Mac | Milk | Tree Nuts, Wheat, and Milk | Milk, Egg, Fish, Tree Nuts, Wheat, Soy, Shellfish, Sesame |
| Type | Gluten-Free Certified | Non-GMO Certified | Kosher | Low Glycemic Index | Allergens in Product | Manufactured on shared equipment with | Allergens present in manufacturing facility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain Crust | Milk, Eggs, Tree Nuts (Almond and Coconut), and/or Sulfites |
Milk, Eggs, Tree Nuts (Almond, Cashew, Pecan, Walnut and Coconut), Wheat, Mustard, Sesame, and/or Sulfites |
|||||
| Four Cheese Roasted Veggie Margherita |
Milk | Milk, Eggs, Tree Nuts (Almond, Cashew, Pecan, Walnut and Coconut), Wheat, Mustard, Sesame, and/or Sulfites |
Milk, Eggs, Tree Nuts (Almond, Cashew, Pecan, Walnut and Coconut), Wheat, Mustard, Sesame, and/or Sulfites |
||||
| Vegan Cheese Vegan Roasted Veggie Vegan Margherita |
Milk, Eggs, Tree Nuts (Almond, Cashew, Pecan, Walnut and Coconut), Wheat, Mustard, Sesame, and/or Sulfites |
Milk, Eggs, Tree Nuts (Almond, Cashew, Pecan, Walnut and Coconut), Wheat, Mustard, Sesame, and/or Sulfites |
| Type | Gluten-Free Certified | Non-GMO Certified | Kosher | Low Glycemic Index | Allergens in Product | Manufactured on shared equipment with | Allergens present in manufacturing facility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homestyle Waffles Blueberry Waffles Chocolate Chip Waffles |
Egg | Milk, Eggs, Soy, Wheat, Tree Nut (Coconut and Almond) |
Milk, Eggs, Soy, Wheat, Tree Nut (Coconut and Almond) |
| Type | Gluten-Free Certified | Non-GMO Certified | Kosher | Low Glycemic Index | Allergens in Product | Manufactured on shared equipment with | Allergens present in manufacturing facility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Egg, Milk, Peanuts, Soy, Tree Nuts (Coconut), Wheat |
Egg, Milk, Peanuts, Soy, Tree Nuts (Coconut), Wheat |
|||||
| Garlic | Milk, Eggs, Wheat, Soybeans, Sulfites, Mustard, Sesame, Peanuts, Tree Nuts (Coconut) |
Milk, Eggs, Wheat, Soybeans, Sulfites, Mustard, Sesame, Fish, Tree Nuts (Coconut), Peanuts |