ACQUIRING A TASTE FOR BARLEY
The food industry’s growing interest in barley could be a healthy trend for farmers

        "Ultimately, we hope to see a premium market develop for food barley similar to the one that now exists for malting barley."
        So says Walt Newman, a member of a husband-and-wife research team that for more than a decade has been trying to convince the world that barley is suited for more than just making beer or feeding to livestock.
        Walt and Rosemary Newman began studying the nutritional benefits of barley in the early ’80s while on the staff of Montana State University. Walt was an animal scientist. Rosemary was a professor of foods and nutrition.
        What triggered their studies were revelations that beta glucan, a type of soluble fiber found in oat bran, lowered cholesterol. The Newmans knew that barley has more beta glucan than oats. Their subsequent experiments with chickens, rats, and human volunteers were the first to show that barley in the diet reduces blood-cholesterol levels at least as much as oat bran, and in many cases more.

Crusaders. The Newmans have spent years presenting their findings to food-science professionals, boosting a grain they felt was being overlooked by the food industry. In addition to calling attention to barley’s soluble-fiber content, they’ve trumpeted its relatively high levels of high-quality protein and other nutrients.
        Though they both recently retired from Montana State, the Newmans still stay in touch with the cereal-grain and related industries. They say it’s gratifying to finally see major food companies such as General Mills, Kellogg, and Quaker Oats rolling out more "heart-healthy" products utilizing barley.
Rosemary says they don’t discount the importance of food barley’s traditional users, such as processors of specialty foods, and home cooks who put barley in soups and other dishes. But she believes they can’t count on these users alone for food barley to reach its potential.
        The new waxy, hulless varieties could help boost barley’s fortunes as a food grain. These varieties have the highest levels of beta glucan and other soluble fiber.
        Some Montana farmers are already growing waxy, hulless variety under contract for ConAgra Specialty Grain Products Company. Developed at Montana State University, the variety goes by the tongue-twisting name of Prowashonupana. ConAgra is offering the barley in several forms-flakes, flour, meal, and pearled-to food companies for further processing into food products. ConAgra officials say one company is introducing a barley-based granola bar this summer.
        Prowashonupana runs about 35 percent total dietary fiber, of which 15 percent is beta glucan, according to Bill Bonner, director of technical services for ConAgra Specialty Grain.
In addition to improving the health benefits of conventional foods, Bonner says, the barley might also play an important role in development of dietary supplements and nutraceuticals. These are food products consumed primarily for specific health benefits. For example, waxy, hulless barley has been shown to stabilize blood-sugar levels.
        ConAgra is also promoting the barley as an extender and fat replacer in foods.

Canadian varieties. Three waxy, hulless barleys are registered in Canada, but no major markets have yet materialized for them, according to Dick Klaffke, manager of research and development for the Alberta Wheat Pool. The Alberta pool, along with the Saskatchewan and Manitoba wheat pools, won the rights to the varieties. One of them, CDC Candle, was developed at the University of Saskatchewan. The other two, Merlin and HB203, are from Western Plant Breeders, a plant-breeding company in Bozeman, Mont.
        The wheat pools are contracting for the limited acreage of these barleys this summer. Klaffke says they’ll be shipping some of the production to several U.S. food companies for evaluation.
Meanwhile, research at several Canadian Universities is paving the way for greater use of barley by the food industry.
        "Food companies need to know more about how barley components behave when processed," says Feral Temelli, a University of Alberta food scientist. Supported by a grant from the Alberta Barley Commission, Temelli’s group is studying the properties of a beta-glucan concentrate extracted from barley flour. With up to 75 percent beta glucan, the concentrate is a potent source of soluble fiber.
The dried concentrate can be dissolved in water to form viscous solutions that feel slippery when touched. "We think the concentrate could be used as the basis of a new range of health drinks or as fat substitute in spreads or desserts," Temelli says.
        The concentrate bears some resemblance to Oatrim, a fat substitute developed from oats by the USDA. Oatrim, however, contains only about 10 percent beta glucan.

Milling potential. At the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre, cereal chemist Ron Bhatty is studying the potential of milled barley products. He says large processors can mill hulless barley with the same roller-mill equipment used for wheat.
        "Hulless barleys will easily yield a bran fraction with 9 to 10 percent beta glucan, with some barley brans running up to 14 percent," Bhatty says. "This is significantly higher than the beta glucan levels in oat bran. Barley bran can be used anywhere oat bran is used to add fiber to foods."
But he adds that if barley is to make much of a dent in the food industry, processors will need to know how to make profitable use of the flour and other products in the barley-milling stream. He notes that oat bran is driving the oat-milling industry, but millers are having trouble disposing of the flour.
Bhatty says barley flour can be used liberally in any unleavened bakery products such as cookies, donuts, and pancakes. Low levels of barley flour can be added to bread wheat flour without significantly affecting loaf volume.
        He says another milled fraction can be used for hot barley cereals. Barley flour preparations can also be used as food thickeners or to enhance the nutritive qualities and flavor of meat products.
An advantage of barley over other cereal grains, according to Bhatty, is that most of its milled fractions contain respectable amounts of fiber. That’s because the beta glucan in barley is distributed through the kernel.
        Attitudes toward barley as a food have certainly changed from a decade ago, when the Newmans first applied for USDA funding to assess barley’s value in human nutrition. Their application was rejected. "Nobody’s going to eat barley," they were told.
By Sherry Jones and Rollie Henkes

- The Furrow, Summer 1997. Reprinted with permission of The Furrow, and Deere & Company