Human utilization of triticale: technological and nutritional aspects

In spite of the fact that triticale is not subject of the EU intervention, its acreage shows a continuously growing trend. Albeit, both parental species (sp. Triticum, sp. Secale) are used for human food, the utilization of triticale as human food is still uncertain. The main focus of this paper was to study and compare technological and nutritional values of triticale and its parental species. Triticale (cultivars and experimental lines) along with one wheat and one rye varieties were used in the tests. Most of the grain and flour technological properties (Kernel diameter, Test Weight, flour yield, gluten content, Zeleny volume) of the triticale entries positioned in between the parental wheat and rye attributes. However, thousand kernel weight (TKW) of triticale cultivar GK Szemes and grain hardness of cv. GK Idus surpassed all other entries. The study revealed that--having considerable variation--triticale grains are very rich in beneficial elements such us Ca, Mg, P, Cu and Zn. Dietary fiber (DF) content of triticales were between the rye and wheat controls (10-15%). Total arabinoxylan content (TOTAX) of triticales were much closer to rye (6%), and in some genotypes considerably expanded it (6,5-7%). Health conscious consumers trend to use increasingly novel, valuable grain sources and products in their daily based diets. The inappropriate nature of triticale per se flours for baking industry seems to hinder the human utilization. Blends exploiting favorable attributes of triticale may be a suitable way to use this valuable crop in milling products and in larger food industrial scale.