The low-carb craze of a few years back has spoiled the nutritional reputation of cereal grains, and it is up to the industry to get people eating them again. So said Francesco Pantò of the pasta giant Barilla yesterday at the first European congress of the American Association of Cereal Chemists International (AACCI), in Montpellier. He suggested five ways to do that:
- develop new durum wheat varieties and special products that can differentiate them, as for grapes and wine
- market grains as mainstream and everyday products
- use innovative technology to incorporate new grains into familiar products
- aim for convenience, and promote the goodness of cereals and fiber
- add extra components to cereal products in order to make them into a more complete meal
The first of these will of course be particularly welcome by those of us interested in agricultural biodiversity, and I wonder whether pseudocereals like buckwheat and quinoa might also find a place under the third point.