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Tortillas could be boom market for barley

A study by a Winnipeg scientist is turning U.S. tortilla researchers on to the benefits of Canadian barley for the $4 billion per year U.S. tortilla market.

Sceptical at first, U.S. tortilla researchers are being won over by barley’s nutritional value and long shelf life, says Dr. Nancy Ames, a cereal chemist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Cereal Research Centre. Ames is studying barley’s potential as a tortilla ingredient, with support from Western Grains Research Foundation’s Endowment Fund. The promising results are drawing serious interest from U.S. researchers, including Dr. Lloyd Rooney, a corn tortilla expert at Texas A&M University.

“These researchers have discovered for themselves that not only do some barley varieties make good dough, they also make excellent tortillas with an extended shelf life,” says Ames.

Ames is now collaborating with Rooney and other Texas A&M researchers on a number of projects examining barley’s potential as an ingredient for traditional “corn” and “wheat” type tortillas. The tortilla market is the fastest growing segment of the U.S. baking industry. Tortilla sales currently rake in $4 billion per year in the U.S., and that is expected to climb to $6.5 billion in a year or two, she says.

“We are currently sending material to Texas to be put through the paces in the university’s pilot-scale corn and wheat tortilla baking equipment,” she says. “The barley is being examined both as a blending agent and on its own.”

So far, research at both the Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg and Texas A&M is revealing that barley’s diverse starch characteristics and soluble fibre components provide the constituents needed for baking tortillas. Tortillas require dough with greater extensibility than most baked products, and do not require specific gluten characteristics.

In addition, barley shows better shelf stability and texture as well as increased health benefits compared to corn and wheat type tortillas, she says. Barley contains beta-glucan, dietary fibre and other components reported to have desirable health benefits. “Barley is really the perfect functional food. I don’t know why it has been in the shadows for so long.”

Ames’ interest in barley tortillas was spurred in part, by being a mother who regularly serves tortilla and other wraps to her children. “I recognized the limitations of tortillas as a consumer, and then realized as a researcher, that barley could solve those problems.”

Not all barley varieties have value for tortillas, she says. “Barley varieties vary widely in starch and fibre composition, affecting their quality for tortilla making.”

Ames and various research partners are evaluating Canadian barley varieties for tortilla quality traits. “We mill the barley at various extraction rates and then test the flour for the required properties. Then we compare the results with U.S. wheat cultivars used for tortilla production,” she says.

Dr. Mario Therrien, a Brandon Research Centre barley breeder, and Dr. Brian Rossnagel, a barley breeder at University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre, are both growing material for the project. Part of the project also involves developing screening criteria that they can use for identifying barley cultivars with superior food quality.

Tortillas made from barley flour may offer consumers a new health food product, she says. As well, barley should appeal to processors because it can be produced at a lower cost than wheat.

However, more research and testing needs to take place before barley becomes a viable option in tortillas, either as a blending agent or as main ingredient, she says. “Barley will probably have to receive the official U.S. designation as a healthy food product before processors would take the plunge into developing barley tortillas,” she says. “That designation means barley products would be labeled as a healthy eating choice.”

Yet, the potential is there, she says. With the U.S. tortilla researchers involved, Ames hopes barley will catch on as a tortilla ingredient

“This could also spur the use of barley in other food products. Ultimately, we want to benefit Canadian producers by helping spark new markets for Canadian barley.”

The Western Grains Research Foundation Endowment Fund has contributed over $17 million to crop research projects in Western Canada since its inception in 1983.

WGRF information at www.westerngrains.com

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