Tritordeum: new cereal wins Sustainable Food Awards

Verónica Guerra, the Communication and Marketing Manager of Agrasys who collected the prize together with Wiro Nillesen, Tritordeum Value Chain Manager in The Netherlands. Photo © Sustainable Foods Summit

Tritordeum is a new Mediterranean cereal with nutritional, agronomical and organoleptic benefits. It has won the first prize in the category Sustainable Ingredient in the Sustainable Food Awards 2018 by Ecovia Intelligence.

The premier Sustainable Food Awards event has been hosted alongside the Sustainable Foods Summit on the evening of 7th June in Amsterdam. The aim of the awards is to give recognition to companies who are helping build a sustainable food industry. One of them is the Spanish start-up company Agrasys, which is introducing Tritordeum into the market.

Resistance to climate change and diseases

“Tritordeum is a project that ensures sustainability in several ways. From the base, it is a project respectful of the natural environment, the people and their surroundings. So it is an honour to be recognised as a sustainable ingredient”, highlighted Verónica Guerra, the Communication and Marketing Manager of Agrasys who collected the prize together with Wiro Nillesen, Tritordeum Value Chain Manager in The Netherlands.

This cereal, the combination of durum wheat (Triticum durum) and wild barley (Hordeum chilense) a has a good resistance to climate change and diseases. It stands up well to drought and high temperatures. The fact that Tritordeum makes efficient use of water and has good resistance to diseases makes it a more sustainable cereal with reduced environmental impact. Tritordeum is cultivated in Spain, Italy and South of France through local farmers but its products – flour, bread, pasta, biscuits, beer, etc- are to date available in 9 countries in Europe.

Albert Heijn, the largest Dutch supermarket chain, launched Tritordeum bread at the beginning of 2018 in 720 shops.