BARLEY-BASED SUPPLEMENT A HIT
BY KAREN DURRIE • PHOTO COURTESY OF SUNNY BOY FOODS
A made in Alberta, barley-based nutritional supplement, NutraStat is manufactured by Camrose-based Sunny Boy Foods, known for its namesake hot cereal, flours and pancake mixes. NutraStat’s star ingredient is the soluble fibre beta-glucan, which has been proven to reduce LDL cholesterol, stabilize blood sugar, improve gut health and assist weight loss by increasing satiety.
In 2014, Thava Vasanthan, professor of grain science and technology at the University of Alberta, approached Brad Shapka, president of Sunny Boy, with a unique, new food technology. Vasanthan had developed air current assisted particle separation (ACAPS), which concentrates fibre from barley, pulses and oats.
Shapka saw the potential to introduce a new product to the market. “Beta-glucan deals with two of the biggest health issues facing the world, which are heart disease and diabetes,” said Shapka. “We saw this as a huge opportunity.”
Using ACAPS, Shapka and Vasanthan experimented with beta-glucan extraction from various barley varieties. As beta-glucan is not desirable in malting barley, they partnered with Tomtene Seed Farm of Birch Hills, SK, to grow food varieties. These include CDC Rattan, a two-row, hulless variety. The extraction technology has since been further refined. It entails milling the barley, which is then fed into an air current chamber that separates particles based on density. The fibre is then separated and concentrated.
Shapka and Vasanthan have patented the process and created a modular system that can be scaled up or down. They plan to market it globally. The system doesn’t use water, chemical solvents or enzymatic treatments as the production of soluble fibre products typically does. It’s a “clean” technology, said Shapka, that produces a lower cost product.
Initially, Sunny Boy sold the resultant fine powder in bulk to the European market as an ingredient in crackers and breads. Shapka additionally identified opportunity in the retail fibre supplement market. “The market is led in Canada by Metamucil, which is made from psyllium, mostly grown in India and entirely produced in the U.S. I saw an opportunity in Canada, where we could assemble the pieces to create the best fibre in the world.”
In 2018, food scientist Nataly Lopez Baron was brought on to help launch NutraStat. This included production of the scientific documentation required by Health Canada to back the product’s health claims, which mirror those established for beta-glucan. Lopez Baron now manages the Guelph Food Innovation Centre but remains involved with NutraStat as a subject matter expert. “I use the product myself,” she said. “I love it in different ways: with cocoa powder, milk and coffee or with matcha and milk.”
Launched in 2020 as a Sunny Boy sub-brand, NutraStat is poised to become its own corporation with plans to expand the product line with the addition of plant-derived protein and other supplements. Each week, NutraStat processes 40 tonnes of barley and serves 7,000 customers. Shapka said sales are “exploding” and aims to soon have 40,000 Canadian customers per month.
Sunny Boy will continue to focus primarily on Canadian NutraStat sales. Plans to launch a beta-glucan product in the U.S. under the name Cerabeta have been shelved due to U.S. tariffs.
NutraStat is sold online at nutrastatfiber.com and at amazon.ca. It can be found on store shelves in the fibre supplement section of Canadian retailers such as Sobeys and various independent pharmacies.
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