CALGARY, ALTA. — Consumers want — and are encouraged to seek out — more fiber in the foods they eat. Corteva Agriscience aims to provide it from the source with its new Trusource durum wheat.

Semolina flour produced from Trusource wheat, announced in July, offers more than twice the amount of fiber in traditional wheat flour, according to Calgary-based Corteva Canada.

“We’ve looked at how what we can do in the seed can solve for some of the most important and largest opportunities that consumers are looking for in the foods they eat,” said Tyler Groeneveld, North American director for Value-Added Ingredients at Corteva. “So how we can solve in the seed what others might have to solve for in processing or fortification, stabilization or additives? If we can solve for stuff in the seed, we see that as a tremendous opportunity to meet a direct consumer nutritional benefit.”

Trusource wheat is designed to provide an optimal sensory experience in packaged foods as well, Corteva said. That’s key, since many shoppers cite concerns about taste and mouthfeel in deciding whether to switch to better-for-you food products.

“The consumer packaged goods company will be able to deliver double the fiber without the consumer having to compromise taste or texture,” Groeneveld said. “So nutrition without having to give something up has been a critical part. We believe there’s tremendous opportunity (with Trusource) in both pasta and baked goods that the food industry and consumers would enjoy producing and eating.”

A study cited by Corteva describes fiber as the “most under-consumed macronutrient” in the North American diet, he noted in explaining Trusource’s health attributes.

“It’s a high amylose starch product with low digestibility,” he said. “That’s going to provide significant nutritional benefits, including improved blood sugar management and gut health, and it helps increase satiety and reduces the (body’s) inflammatory response.”

Corteva expects to provide the food industry with samples of semolina and pasta from Trusource by early 2025, said Groeneveld.

“They’ll be able to do analytical work, product design, menu design; we know that takes time,” he said. “So, from the 2024 crop, we’ll be able to provide samples for the food industry. And then in parallel to that, we’ll have commercialization plans in the next couple of years. We anticipate being able to scale this up and grow this on farms across western Canada.”

Initially, Corteva plans to commercialize Trusource in western Canada, but the company also may look south of the border as the product gains traction.

“I would expect we will look at other global geographies, including the Northern (US) states where durum wheat is growing,” Groeneveld said. “And then we’ll look for opportunities as the demand for the product continues to grow, because we believe it is such a unique product that can reward a producer for growing a higher-value crop and, ultimately, (reward) everyone to that end user who gets a greater nutritional benefit.”

Tyler Groeneveld, North American director for Value-Added Ingredients at Corteva
Source: Corteva Agriscience

He explained, “For the pasta manufacturers looking to create or design products with higher fiber, they are looking for alternative seeds to be able to do that. They’re looking at stir-ins or exogenous fiber, which is very expensive. We believe that for pasta manufacturers, the adoption of high-fiber Trusource durum wheat will actually have a cost savings to allow for a more economical and profitable food ingredient, compared to the addition of other add-ins that actually lead to the labels not being as clean as we’ll be able to deliver with Trusource.”

Trusource durum — part of Corteva’s Value-Added Ingredients portfolio, which includes omega-9 canola oil and Plenish high-oleic soybean oil — also offers sustainability benefits and is cultivated under an identity preservation system that allows crops to be traced from their farm or region of origin to the ingredient processor.

“(Trusource) has a really significant benefit because it has a 30% lower carbon footprint when compared to Italian wheat,” Groeneveld said. “Given the crop rotation and cropping systems, the reduced tillage, everything where this wheat is growing, it results in a carbon sink. So we’re building soil, not depleting soil. And again, compared to Italian durum, it requires about 85% less irrigation. It’s a very sustainable crop. There’s a wonderful regenerative agriculture story to the adoption of durum wheat — and Trusource durum wheat — in the Northern (US) plains and the western Canadian area.”