Have you heard of BARLEYmax®, which is high in fiber and popular for its popping texture and sweetness? You may not even realize it, but you have been eating it, as it is used in blue and green convenience store rice balls. We are going to answer the question of where it came from and what kind of thing it is.
Birth of a new type of barley, BARLEYmax®
BARLEYmax® is
- A kind of barley developed over 10 years by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).
It was developed using conventional breeding techniques, without the use of gene recombination technology.
This was an effort to address the growing health consciousness in Australia at the time, to maintain good health through diet.
Its discovery was inspired by the eating habits of African people.
And its development began in the late 1990s.
CSIRO became interested in the health of people in an African village and started researching their diet. The researchers then realized that the villagers had a habit of cooling down starchy foods before eating them. There is a way of eating in Japan, too, that makes you feel the great wisdom of the ancients, and it may have been similar to this.
What the researchers found when they studied nutritional ingredients that might come about by cooling and might be effective for health was resistant starch.
Resistant starch is a type of starch that is difficult for humans to digest and absorb and is now considered a third type of dietary fiber, next to soluble and insoluble fiber.
Based on barley containing resistant starch, the researchers have been improving it for 10 years and finally created BARLEYmax®.
Check out more details here (the official website of the king of fiber, BARLEYmax®)!
Teijin meets BARLEYmax®
It was in the summer of 2015 that Teijin first came across BARLEYmax®, which made them think, “This is it!” Of course, no one knew at the time that BARLEYmax® granola, which became an explosive hit the following year and was manufactured and sold as a signature product, would receive the Yahoo! Japan Search Award.
Teijin had started work focused on intestinal health
Two years before
Scientists involved in the Human Genome Project (completed in 2003), which brought together the best scientists and researchers in the US, had all moved on to research intestinal bacteria, and the results were beginning to appear rapidly. At about that time, a project was started within Teijin to see if a new business could be created utilizing technology in the healthcare field. Then, there came a certain fact that made an impact.
- There are more than 1,000 types of bacteria in the human gut, and these are involved in a variety of health aspects throughout the body.
Intestinal bacteria may affect not only the digestive system but also the brain. You will no doubt know that dietary fiber has an important effect on the activity of intestinal bacteria.
Today, many studies have been published on the brain-gut relationship and the effects of dietary fiber on intestinal bacteria, and many people are now familiar with this information. At the time, however, research was still in its infancy, and discoveries were being reported rapidly, making it a hot topic.
Teijin, a fiber maker, gets involved in dietary fiber.
Human health is supported by the intestines, and dietary fiber improves their condition. The following is what Teijin thought when they learned that.
- There would be more and more new findings on intestinal bacteria in the future. Teijin, a fiber maker, could turn its hand to dietary fiber.
Teijin Limited was originally a fiber maker. Some members originally did fiber research in the project, and then the opportunity arrived! You can imagine that it was the moment when they saw the light.
So they embarked on this long journey of searching for new ingredients while focusing on dietary fiber. When they heard that good foodstuffs were to be found in the east, they would immediately fly to the east, and if they heard that cereals with high fiber were good in the south, they would pull out their summer clothes and head south. They had circled the earth for two weeks before they realized it.
Heading for Australia in search of short-chain fatty acids
During their two-week tour of the globe, they were busy expanding their knowledge through discussions with many researchers around the world and acquiring new information, and one keyword finally emerged.
- Short-chain fatty acids produced by probiotic bacteria
Intestinal bacteria are broadly divided into good bacteria, bad bacteria, and opportunistic bacteria. As the name suggests, good bacteria have a positive effect on the body, so an intestinal environment where good bacteria are active is proof that the intestines are in excellent condition. The researchers arrived at the fact that the short-chain fatty acids produced by these good bacteria were super substances that had various effects on health.
Once they had a clear idea of the direction they should aim for, they were off and running.
Focusing on short-chain fatty acids, they looked around the world again and learned of a revolutionary product in Australia. Therefore, they began to consider the possibility of introducing that product. However, they found it difficult to introduce it because of various hurdles. When they were disappointed, a researcher of that product introduced them to a new barley product that focused on short-chain fatty acids.
Three years after the project started, they finally came across BARLEYmax®, an Australian product that was so rich in fiber and of such high quality that it was considered the king of dietary fiber.
The dietary fiber content of BARLEYmax®
So, how was it? This is the story of not only the years it took to come across BARLEYmax® but also the struggle for people’s health. Teijin would promote the BARLEYmax® that we had fallen in love with so much so that it would grow to become a foodstuff that would firmly take root in Japan and be available to many more people.