Food and industrial

Tortillas and breakfast cereals are just a start. Barley’s unique nutritional qualities and properties are opening the door to a wide range of human food and industrial uses.

Free-radical scavengers, waxy mutations, beta-glucan boosters – while these may sound like characters out of the latest sci-fi thriller or video game, for barley breeders they are the building blocks behind a new push to specialty food and industrial markets for barley.

Barley has unique physical properties and nutritional components that have potential uses in a broad range of sectors. This is what breeders are tapping with creative breeding to generate new options for growers and the industry. Progress in hulless barley is a major factor in opening the door to these opportunities – this type of “naked” barley has greater value for human consumption because key vitamins and minerals are not lost in pearling.

One of the fastest developing niches is the specialty starch market. The first varieties developed for this niche are “waxy” types, which are high in the amylopectin component. Amylopectin is used in products such as cream fill for pastries; as a stabilizing starch, it prevents the cream from running.

For future varieties, researchers are exploring other potential barley products such as breakfast cereal, noodles, pearled barley for a Japan-targeted “minute-rice” type product, beta-glucan enhanced food additives and blending flour. That effort concentrates on tailoring the functional properties of barley, and taking advantage of the natural nutritional components of barley starch. One such component – beta-glucan – is an important source of soluble dietary fibre that is reported to reduce cholesterol. Other nutritional components breeders aim to boost in barley include everything from Vitamin E to “free radical scavengers” – antioxidants important in the prevention and treatment of diseases.

Currently, less than five percent of Canada’s barley crop is aimed at food markets, but this has potential to grow exponentially. Further industrial uses that require stable starches offer other promising opportunities.

New in the field and on the way

CDC Candle (1994). Waxy, basic agronomics. U of S CDC.

Merlin (1995). Waxy, semi-dwarf, lodging resistance, good plumpness. Western Plant Breeders.

HB 803 (1995). Two-row waxy hulless barley. Tall semi-dwarf with excellent lodging resistance, high test weight and plumpness, resistant to scald and loose smut, moderate resistance to surface smuts. Western Plant Breeders.

CDC Alamo (1999). Two-row waxy hulless barley, with pure amylopectin starch. U of S CDC.

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