Competing in the Marketplace

With many green foods entering the marketplace, it’s tough to determine which product is superior until sufficient time has allowed adequate testing. Some of the qualities that determine a true quality product are not only its nutrient content but also a low bacterial content and the products ability to endure time on the shelf without rapid loss of nutrients.

Two barley powder concentrates that have recently entered the marketplace with quick popularity are AIM BarleyLife® and BarleyMax. Now that a 6-month period of time has elapsed since the introduction of these two products, more in-depth testing has been conducted to determine qualities such as nutrient stability and purity. 

We believe the best choices we make in life are when we base those choices on fact and not hype. Hence, we have done further study and research between the two products.

Click here for the previous research comparison between AIM BarleyLife® and BarleyMax.

Dr Hagawara's research: Dr Hagawara spent many years researching how to preserve the nutrients of juiced barley. He discovered that by adding maltodextrin to the barley juice, he was able to protect the enzymes at the molecular level. This procedure of adding maltodextrin was key to the 20 year success of Barleygreen® as a powerful nutritional supplement. Knowing how critical this process was in preserving the powdered barley, there was no question but to follow the wisdom of Dr. Hagawara when AIM International created BarleyLife®.

Product Stability: Some of the recent tests conducted confirm the need for maltodextrin as a nutrient stabilizer. BarleyMax is grown and processed for Hallelujah Acres by a company in Southwest Utah that uses no maltodextrin. 

Recent tests revealed that in just 6 months, the Vitamin C content in BarleyMax dropped from 65.7-mg/100 g to 10.4-mg/100g. That’s a 84% drop or a diminish of 14% per month. At this rate, there would be little or no Vitamin C present in BarleyMax after 7 months.

Another test conducted was for the enzyme Superoxide Dismutase or SOD. Over a 6-month period of time, the SOD content dropped from 1008 units/gram to 790 units/gram.

This is about a 22% drop in SOD activity in 6 months. If the SOD content continued to degrade at a logarithmic rate, BarleyMax would contain about 22% of its initial SOD activity by the time the expiration is realized.

These levels of nutrient degradation are very significant and validate Dr. Hagawara’s research and choice of the nutrient stabilizing maltodextrin.

Beware of Competitors calling Maltodextrin a Filler: In Hallelujah Acres’ newsletter, “Back to the Garden” Issue No. 14 (Summer/Fall 1996), there is an article titled “Products, Products, Products…” by George Malkmus. In this article, he is quoted as saying, “Other than Green Magma, which we just discussed, BarleyGreen® is the only green powder product on the market that contains maltodextrin, a complex carbohydrate made from pine nuts and corn. Competitors call it a filler, but maltodextrin serves a vital purpose as a water-soluble fiber to stabilize the nutrients and prevent oxidation! Without this stabilizer, the product would oxidize (just like any other form of vegetable juice) and have an extremely limited shelf life. Beware of any green powder on the market today if it does not contain maltodextrin, as it will oxidize and not give the same results.”

An extremely accurate statement!!

Sugar: Other recent tests compared levels of sugar between AIM BarleyLife® and BarleyMax. BarleyMax tested at 19.5% sugar compared to 15.9% sugar for BarleyLife®. This lower level of sugar for BarleyLife®, even with the added maltodextrin indicates that the added maltodextrin is truly a complex carbohydrate. The chart below shows a breakdown of the sugar comparison.

 (Note: The only sugar higher in BarleyLife® is maltose due to the added maltodextrin.)

Purity: The purity of the product is a major indicator as to the true quality of a product.  

Fiber Content: One test indicating BarleyLife’s® level of purity during the juicing process is a comparison of the fiber content. Fiber content testing indicated the total fiber content of BarleyMax is 8.5% compared to 4.1% for BarleyLife®. This means BarleyMax has over twice the total fiber content as BarleyLife® even though BarleyLife® contains added fiber from the addition of whole kelp powder rather than kelp ash and brown rice flour. 

Bacterial Content: The other extremely important test for product purity is bacterial content. This test indicates how clean the process and processing environment is, how cool the product is kept, and how fresh the finished product is. Two different tests for bacteria are for coliform bacteria and aerobic bacteria or APC.

Coliform Bacteria: The presence of coliform bacteria in a product can be harmful to people and in some cases can be fatal. All bacteria in the coliform family are not harmful but because E. coli does fall into this family, it is best to keep allowable limits in any food product to an absolute minimum. AIM consistently performs tests to determine presence of mold, yeasts, and bacteria such as coliform, enterobacteria, and E. coli. AIM has no tolerance for coliform bacteria in BarleyLife®. Their specifications were modeled after products for consumption by infants, children, debilitated or otherwise sensitive consumers.  

Test results revealed no colonies of coliform bacteria for AIM BarleyLife® at a 1:20 dilution whereas tests for BarleyMax revealed 11 colonies at a 1:20 dilution ratio. 

In order to determine the number of actual colonies of coliform bacteria per gram of product at a 1:20 ratio, one would multiply every colony by 20. Thus multiplying 11 by 20 indicates 220 colonies of coliform bacteria growing per gram of BarleyMax.  Below are pertifilm pictures indicating coliform bacterial growth for BarleyLife® and BarleyMax during a 48 hour period of time. 

Note: The air pockets in the BarleyMax petrifilm are from the gases produced from the bacteria.

Aerobic Bacteria: Aerobic bacteria or APC grows in the presence of air and is a good measurement of overall cleanliness of a food and/or its processing. Allowable limits of heat processed liquids like milk are quite low since liquids allow bacteria to continue to grow and cause spoilage but low moisture, non-heat processes powders can sustain higher limits without stability issues.

Test results revealed 11 colonies of aerobic bacteria for AIM BarleyLife® at a 1:2000 dilution whereas tests for BarleyMax revealed 111 colonies at a 1:2000 dilution ratio.  This test reveals the APC content in BarleyMax is 10 times higher than BarleyLife®. The content of aerobic bacteria in BarleyMax exceeds AIM's maximum allowance for aerobic bacteria.

The problem with allowing bacteria, especially uncontrolled bacteria, in any product is its ability to double every 20 minutes after reconstitution. That means bacteria have the potential to grow exponentially. Below is a chart of the amount of bacteria that could generate in just 6 short hours at 20 minute intervals. 

    BarleyMax Coliform  /  BarleyMax APC