When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave final approval to a health claim for barley in May 2006, it was the culmination of a decade long campaign by barley industry officials.
“We had been talking about it for 10 years,” said Mary Palmer Sullivan, executive director of the U.S. National Barley Foods Council. “It took so long.”
The claim for barley states that food products that provide at least 0.75 grams of soluble fibre per serving as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.
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Sullivan is confident the time and money spent getting the health claim will benefit the barley industry and consumers.
She expects food companies will try to take advantage of the claim by developing new barley-based food products that they can promote to consumers as good for their health.
“The issue of looking for products to reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes won’t go away,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity for the companies.”
However, she acknowledged that has been slow to happen.
“It hasn’t had quite the impact we expected,” she said.
“We thought there would be a lot more products developed for the marketplace by now.”
She said several factors have hindered the health claim’s effectiveness. It states barley’s benefit comes as part of a low fat diet, meaning three grams or less of fat per serving.
“That stipulation has been a limiting factor,” she said.
“There are products that you’d expect would be able to use the claim that can’t because of the fat requirements.”
She cited granola bars and beef barley soups as being too high in fat to use the claim.
Another factor is the widespread expectation that the FDA will soon approve a health claim touting the benefits of whole grain.
Some food companies that are using or considering barley as an ingredient may be inclined to wait and make a whole grain claim rather than use the existing claim, which is based on the benefits of soluble fibre and high levels of beta-glucans in barley.
Finally, the FDA’s repeated delays in granting final approval may have caused problems for food manufacturers, which need time to develop new products, packaging and advertising to promote a health claim.
The barley industry originally expected the health claim to be approved in February 2005. However, due to staff shortages and a heavy workload, the FDA twice extended the deadline, granting interim approval in December 2005 and final approval in May.
“Some companies had begun developing products in anticipation of the claim, but abandoned barley for other grains when faced with the delays in the approval process,” Sullivan said. “Timing is everything.”
Despite those delays, she said, the FDA was helpful and co-operative, as were major industry players such as Quaker Oats, which made its clinical trials available to the barley council, and Cargill, which provided legal services, and the federal government, which provided research funds.
“It really was a co-operative effort,” she said.
