The highland barley industry in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is equipped with the wings of science and technology

Our reporter Wang Wei

Highland barley is the "food for life" and "food for prosperity" for Tibetans on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

High technology has transformed the highland barley industry in Qinghai Province

On-site evaluation of project results

The system promotes the high-value utilization of highland barley, which has won unanimous praise from experts

As the dominant crop with the most regional characteristics and cultural connotations planted on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, highland barley has become a healthy raw material in the modern food industry due to its various functional characteristics

The reporter learned that the research results have been approved by the "13th Five-Year Plan" national key research and development plan "Scientific basis for nutritional compounding of miscellaneous grains and staple grains, research and demonstration of key technologies for staple food application and functionalization (2017YFD0401202)", "Eleventh Five-Year" Qinghai Province Science and technology support plan "Qinghai highland barley processing quality evaluation and processing applicability research (2012-G-07)", Qinghai provincial central and local science and technology development funds "highland characteristic grain deep processing research and development innovation base construction", Qinghai Province Xining City Science and Technology Bureau project " Plateau characteristics - highland barley whole-grain barley tea and teabag series product research and development and pilot test (2015-K-42)” and other 4 projects

Based on the processing adaptability of different highland barley, the project screened suitable highland barley varieties for processing, and conducted in-depth research on the health effects and principles of highland barley

In order to increase the high-value application of highland barley products, the project developed a new highland barley shelling machine that maintains the activity of β-glucan in highland barley, and formed a premixed powder compounding technology with high β-glucan content

The series of healthy new products developed by the project, such as highland barley rice paste, highland barley wheat grain tea, and highland barley dried noodles, have been unanimously affirmed by experts

The expert committee suggested that the project team should further strengthen the promotion and industrial application of highland barley achievements, make the characteristic highland barley industry on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau bigger and stronger, and make new contributions to Qinghai's economic construction and social development

The expert committee participating in this achievement evaluation has a strong lineup of experts, mainly including Sun Baoguo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, chairman of the China Society of Food Science and Technology, president of Beijing Technology and Business University, Meng Suhe, honorary chairman of the China Society for Food Science and Technology, and nutrition of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Highland barley processing space is broad, and technology is promising

Professor Shen Qun from the School of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University made a technical report on behalf of the project completion unit

Shen Qun's review of the research on highland barley in China found that at present, many studies still have relatively weak basic research and unclear functional mechanisms; the efficacy of processed products is unclear, and there is a lack of active maintenance technology for functional components such as β-glucan during processing.

　　Shen Qun, who has been traveling on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for a long time, said that in the future, he will continue to jointly tackle key problems to carry out variety selection and breeding around palatability, functionality, and machining performance; research and develop processing equipment around improving equipment performance; and expand deep processing around food, cosmetics, health food, etc.

Expert on-site inspection project base

　　Science and technology poverty alleviation needs to consolidate basic research and take a characteristic road

　　Sun Baoguo pointed out that the highland barley produced in Qinghai and Tibet is quite different, and the highland barley in Qinghai Province has its own uniqueness

　　"The yield of highland barley is small, it cannot be compared with wheat and rice, and it cannot be used as a conventional food.

　　Ding Gangqiang suggested to establish a quality evaluation system of highland barley with β-glucan as the main evaluation index, and analyze the influence of different processing methods on nutrients

Responsible editor: Zhao Yu Review: Wang Jinchen