While consumers have become familiar with dairy alternatives in the form of almond, oat, soy and coconut, scientists at Plant & Food Research have been exploring what the next generation of plant-based alternatives could look like – with the aim of delivering products and processing systems that have strong sustainability and nutrition credentials.
This work has led to the development of barley milk and a potential barley yoghurt.
Using the organisation’s expertise in cultivar development, food formulation, process development and techno-economic analysis, three teams from Plant & Food Research (PFR) have come up with novel ways to generate a nutrient dense plant-based milk and yoghurt.
Both products use a new barley cultivar developed at PFR that has high amounts of beta-glucan (known to be good for lowering cholesterol), more protein, and good agronomic performance.
Food technologist and barley milk project leader Irene Ho said the processing method that’s been applied uses the entire barley wholegrain, which means reduced waste.
“Traditional plant-based milk production involves filtration or centrifugation steps that separate gritty particles into a fibre-rich byproduct. Our process technology eliminates this gritty byproduct, meaning more nutrients stay in the final product.
“Much like oats, barley requires a lot less water to grow compared to nuts, which is an important consideration too when it comes to sustainability.”
As part of the milk product formulation, Ho said there’s been several iterations of processing and sensory trials to ensure the wholegrain milk delivers when it comes to flavour, mouthfeel and nutritional content.
The capabilities developed through the barley milk project are now allowing PFR to push forward and explore barley yogurt formulation, as well as the application of the barley milk processing system for other crops.
Dr Gert-Jan Moggré, senior scientist, is heading the barley yoghurt project at PFR.
“Following on with the work Irene Ho and her team are doing, we are interested in trialling how well this new barley milk base ferments to make a yoghurt.
“There is a lot more research on dairy systems compared with plant systems. In moving from a dairy base to a plant base, the requirement of the bacterial cultures changes as plants-derived bases have differences in proteins and carbohydrates to ferment. What bacteria you select for will change the texture and flavour significantly, something that remains a significant challenge for existing products. We are trialling different cultures but are making good progress.”
An added value these barley-based products have is the higher fibre content, due to the PFR high beta-glucan content barley cultivars.
“One of the key things that plant-based foods bring that one can’t get from animal sources is high levels of fibre. Our barley yoghurt is high in fibre, which is a nutrient most New Zealanders don’t eat enough of,” Moggré said.
If successfully commercialised, barley-based food and beverage products have the potential to provide another income stream for New Zealand’s arable sector.
At the moment, the crop is primarily grown for stock feed and for use in beer production.
“This work is really about pushing the envelope in the dairy alternatives space. We know consumers are hungry for these products and there are opportunities to build on the current market offering,” Ho said.
