NEW POSTER: Production of healthy barley ingredients is affected by grain structure and composition

Friday, 28 November 2008 11:01

Being a good source of diverse nutritionally beneficial components, e.g. soluble dietary fibre (beta-glucan), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) can be exploited in a wide rage of functional ingredients for different food and beverage applications. However, it is not well known well enough which structural and processing characteristics should be used in selecting barley for these purposes.

Holopainen et al. studied the microstructure, chemical composition and milling behaviour of five barley cultivars grown in Finland. Special attention was paid to the distribution of beta-glucan rich cell walls, hull, protein and starch in barley kernel. Microscopic analysis of the barley grains revealed variation between cultivars in the endosperm cell wall thickness, starch granule size distribution and composition. The differences in the milling performance of the samples were reflected in the particle size distributions of the flours. The endosperm cell wall thickness seemed to be one of the factors determining the milling performance. These results prove that the structure and composition of the grain material are in an essential role when choosing barley for the ingredient production. This knowledge assists also development of the processing solutions suitable for the production of beta-glucan enriched fractions to be used in cholesterol lowering and other functional food applications.


Reference:

Holopainen, U., Kössö, T., Kaukovirta-Norja, A., Poutanen, K., Pihlava, J.-M., Hietaniemi, V., Lehtinen, P. Barley as a functional beverage ingredient - The influence of grain structure and composition on the processing characteristics. 1st International Symposium for Young Scientists and Technologists in Malting, Brewing and Distilling, University College of Cork, Ireland, 6th -7th November 2008.