Background As a dietetic source of fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, and phenolic compounds, common beans have potential benefits in human health, namely in chronic diseases’ prevention (e.g., cardiovascular diseases and colon cancer). Still, legume consumption, especially in European countries, is below recommendations. The consumers demand for innovative, attractive legume‐based food products suggests a potential future increase in consumption of legumes, especially in modern societies, keen on ready‐to‐eat foods with known health benefits. Objectives With the aim of studying, the impact of wheat flour's partial substitution by common bean (56%) and maize (22%) flours in the nutritional composition of formulated cookies and its effect on human glycemia and consumers’ satiety perception, after ingestion, a human intervention study (n = 16) was designed. Findings Approved by consumers, common bean enriched cookies were responsible by reducing glycemic response, and by increasing satiety perception. The nutritional composition of common bean enriched cookies contributed to explain these effects. Conclusions Common bean enriched bakery food products are valuable nutritional options for consumers concerned with satiety and chronic diseases’ prevention. Significance and novelty This study showed, for the first time, through a human intervention trial the relevance of using legumes (common beans in particular) as alternative ingredients to improve ready‐to‐eat products’ nutritional quality.

Common bean is a nutritious food legume widely appreciated by consumers worldwide. It is a staple food in Latin America, and a component of the Mediterranean diet, being an affordable source of protein with high potential as a gourmet food. Breeding for nutritional quality, including both macro and micronutrients, and meeting organoleptic consumers’ preferences is a difficult task which is facilitated by uncovering the genetic basis of related traits. This study explored the diversity of 106 Portuguese common bean accessions, under two contrasting environments, to gain insight into the genetic basis of nutritional composition (ash, carbohydrates, fat, fiber, moisture, protein, and resistant starch contents) and protein quality (amino acid contents and trypsin inhibitor activity) traits through a genome-wide association study. Single-nucleotide polymorphism-trait associations were tested using linear mixed models accounting for the accessions’ genetic relatedness. Mapping resolution to the gene level was achieved in 56% of the cases, with 102 candidate genes proposed for 136 genomic regions associated with trait variation. Only one marker-trait association was stable across environments, highlighting the associations’ environment-specific nature and the importance of genotype × environment interaction for crops’ local adaptation and quality. This study provides novel information to better understand the molecular mechanisms regulating the nutritional quality in common bean and promising molecular tools to aid future breeding efforts to answer consumers' concerns.