Archives

FDA decision boosts Canadian barley

In a landmark decision for barley's future as a food ingredient, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published an amendment to its health claim for soluble fibre and coronary heart disease to include barley.

"This is tremendous news for Canada's barley industry," says Dr. Nancy Ames of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg. "This is a long awaited health claim for those of us working on barley as a food that will now put the health benefits of barley on an equal playing field with oat."

This is not your grandfather's barley crop. Researchers are helping Canadian farmers and their industry capture new market opportunities.

Barley's unique health benefits have steadily gained recognition over the past decade, notes Ames. The health claim will provide a dramatic momentum boost to efforts to develop and promote barley as a food.

Research by Ames and colleagues in quality evaluation for food barley, including the testing of new varieties aimed at the food market, has been progressing steadily over the past decade.

"We've found excellent potential for variation in the starch characteristics among a set of barley varieties tested, and we've determined that these variations have specialized applications in various end products, including noodles and tortillas, which are traditionally made from wheat or corn flour," says Ames. "Barley also has key health advantages that strengthen its food market potential. Most notably, barley contains beta-glucan, fibre, and tocopherols, which provide health benefits such as a reduction in serum cholesterol."

Three perspectives on progress

Here's a look at three perspectives on progress related to food barley opportunities, with links to more information.

1. Tapping health benefits. "Interest in the use of barley as a food grain has increased primarily because of its reported health benefits," says Dr. Linda Malcomson, Canadian International Grains Institute, Winnipeg. "Barley is an excellent source of beta-glucan soluble fibre and contains antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients such as phenolics and lignans. These components have biological activities that can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. As a whole grain, barley can also play a role in weight maintenance." More.

2. Expanding bread potential. Canadian barley breeders are developing a new type of barley to widen potential for the grain in bread and other traditional milled wheat products. "Millhouse," the first registered Canadian variety of this type, 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 the first true milling barley for Canada," says barley breeder Dr. Mario Therrien of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Brandon Research Centre, who bred Millhouse. "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." More.

3. Tortilla market. Working with tortilla experts at Texas A&M University, Canadian researchers devised a method using flour milled from barley to produce tortillas. Since then, they've taken this discovery a step further, producing barley taco chips on a limited commercial scale, working with Canadian processors.

"The results of the test run show that further research is necessary, but we believe the potential is there for manufacturers to make a barley taco chip that is accepted by consumers," says Dr. Nancy Ames of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. "Barley products contain more fibre than corn and wheat products. As well, they have a longer shelf life and are easier to process." More.

© 2006 Meristem Information Resources Ltd.
Meristem® is a registered trademark of Meristem Information Resources Ltd. All rights reserved.
Legal Disclaimer