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Barley breakthrough widens milling opportunitiesDate posted: June 28, 2005Canadian barley researchers have registered a new barley variety that paves the way for barley's inclusion in the multi-trillion dollar global market for the products of milling wheat.  Dr. Mario Therrien Canadian researchers have cleared another major hurdle to the widespread use of barley in food products. "Millhouse," the first registered Canadian milling barley, contains properties that allow barley grain to be processed in the same fashion as wheat. By mixing barley flour with wheat flour, millers can produce bread and other products with benefits such as double the percentage of dietary fibre and unique barley nutritional components linked to lowering blood cholesterol and preventing cancer. "Millhouse is bred to complement wheat for milling purposes, with the advantage that it provides more dietary fibre than wheat could ever provide. It also provides all the other unique health benefits of barley," says barley breeder Dr. Mario Therrien of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Brandon Research Centre, who bred Millhouse. From a scientific perspective, the key challenge was developing a barley that would behave more like wheat in the milling process, says Therrien. "What you need for a milling barley is a kind of starch that is similar to wheat in its water-absorbing properties," he explains. "That's what we've aimed for with Millhouse. "This variety contains the right kind of starch and protein profile that is compatible with wheat. This allows the barley flour it produces to be blended with wheat flour, without creating any problems for the miller. "The idea is not to replace wheat flour altogether in the product, but to allow for these blends to be produced. The barley imparts the dietary fibre that the wheat lacks, along with barley's other unique health-enhancing benefits, so you get a better product." Therrien discusses more about Millhouse and the potential it represents in an article in the June edition of Western Grains Research Magazine. Reprintable with permission. Reproduction of this article - in whole or in part, in print or electronic - requires direct permission from Meristem Information Resources, Ltd. Contact Meristem directly to request reprint permission. |
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