Wild barley + durum wheat = Tritordeum, a novel cereal crop with big potential

The Tritordeum story began in the 1970s with postdoctoral work in the UK by Professor Antonio Martin that triggered a flurry of trips to Chile and Argentina to search for wild barley varieties.

It has since taken many twists and turns, says Vassiliadis, who is based in Barcelona, Spain: The formation of a new company in 2006, commercialization in 2014, bankruptcy in 2020 followed by a corporate takeover gone wrong, and a second chance in 2021.

“What stands out in baking, first of all, is that Tritordeum contains a high level of protein and fiber, so nutritionally, it’s superior to wheat, plus it has a nice golden yellow color from lutein, a natural yellow pigment found in the grain. It also a very nice, mild but sweet taste.

“It also contains fewer of the indigestible proteins from gluten, which allows people with gluten intolerance to tolerate foods made with Tritordeum when they cannot eat, for instance, wheat- or spelt-based products.”

As for brewing, he says, “Something we have discovered through a joint partnership with a large malting company called Boortmalt is that Tritordeum has very high enzymatic activity. In the brewing world, two types of enzymes that are very important, alpha amylases and beta amylases.

It so happens that Tritordeum is very high in those amylases, so it’s very good to convert starch [from the grain] into sugars [which are used by yeast in the fermentation]. Sugar conversion is also very important for distillers.

“So they are looking for what they call high DP [Diastatic Power] malts [with a high enzymatic content designed to efficiently convert starches into fermentable sugars]. Tritordeum is able to perform actually better than most of the varieties of malting barleys in the market today.”

Tritordeum is also low in lipoxygenase, an enzyme that shortens the shelf-life of beer, he said, noting that brewers are actively seeking out ‘low-LOX’ varieties of barley.

“Through our partnership with Boortmalt, we have discovered that all the varieties of Tritordeum we have in our hands today are low-LOX. So this provides an opportunity for brewers to use our grain to substitute barley for enhanced shelf life in their beer.”

From an agronomic perspective, Tritordeum has several attractive qualities from heat, cold, and drought tolerance, to enhanced nitrogen use efficiency, anoxia tolerance, and disease resistance, says Vassiliadis.

“Many crops are affected by [fungal] diseases such as rust, septoria, and fusarium, and Tritordeum has genetics from wild barley that make it very resistant to those diseases. So for the farmer, this means he can produce using less fungicide, so it’s more sustainable. Another interesting trait of Tritordeum is the protein content of the grain, which is produced without having to apply too much fertilizer.”

But there is a tradeoff, he concedes. “There are always downsides. And yield is one of them. So Tritordeum has 50 years of breeding behind it, whereas wheat has thousands, so we are still behind on the yield potential of the crop. But this is something we are working on. We have already developed new varieties that will come in the market in the coming years that are yielding 20-30% higher than our current commercial varieties.

“So this is work in progress, but we truly believe that with modern breeding techniques, we can close the yield gap and hopefully reach the same yields as we would get with wheat and barleys, but with added nutrition and the added traits that we discussed.”