CHARACTERIZATION OF A TYPICAL SICILIAN MALT THROUGH THE INTRODUCTION OF CULTIVATION AND TRANSFORMATION METHODS OF INNOVATIVE RAW MATERIALS
The project aims to increase the income of the enterprises of the cereal-malt-beer chain, through the placing on market of an innovative type of product market (malt) characterized by a strong local characterization (“100% Sicilian”) and high quality properties. In this perspective, the project activities are a great opportunity to transfer innovation to the Sicilian enterprises active in the supply chain “malt-beer made in Sicily”, who want to focus on a qualification and characterization of the product linked to the specificity of the raw materials (barley and wheat malts of Sicilian landraces and yeasts).
The production of beer malt will be characterized by introducing innovations into the supply chain through the use of innovative raw materials. The agronomic and maltary characteristics of the two-row barley and wheat varieties chosen will be validated at the partner farms. The hygienic-sanitary characteristics will also be evaluated and the possibility of using innovative yeasts will be verified. Finally, there is an economic analysis of the income of companies on the production of barley and malt wheat, an economic analysis of the transformation process and an analysis of the consumer's willingness to pay for new products.
The territorial context referred to is that of the inland areas of Sicily with a cereal vocation both in terms of farms and in terms of surface. In fact, only in the provinces of Enna, Palermo and Catania, object of the project, together with Ragusa and Messina, there are 22,532 cereal companies for an area of about 136,000 hectares. In these territories, as in the rest of Sicily and Italy, the sector is characterized by the very strong business fragmentation and the poor organizational level in the concentration of the offer. 90% of the production is of durum wheat, while the production of barley and other minor cereals is almost irrelevant. There is, however, a growing interest in varieties of conservation wheat, the so-called "ancient grains". In this context, the need to be solved is therefore linked to the diversification of cereal production to try, at least in part, to escape the fluctuating trend of the durum wheat market, turning to a continuously growing market such as the brewing and food sectors. functional. The continuous expansion of agricultural / craft beer production in Sicily suggests, in fact, to propose new products on the market that meet the needs of the supply chain, such as malt, characterized and traced, coming from barley and wheat of local origin (grains ancient Sicilians) for biodiversity conservation. Another interesting market segment to be intercepted is that of functional foods based on barley, which are also continuously growing due to the enormous interest from the consumer.
"The product innovations that are intended to be introduced in the inter-company context refer to innovative raw materials to be made available to the players in the horde / brewery chain and, possibly, to the Sicilian processing industry with particular reference to functional foods based on barley. This refers in particular to the transfer and application, through verification in the field and during processing, of particular types of malt coming from new varieties of high quality maltaria barley and proven adaptability to Sicilian environments and wheat (""ancient grains "") Of Sicilian origin to test their ability to transfer to the finished product the peculiar characteristics of the territories of origin and cultivation. The introduction of ancient Sicilian grains into the process is also an innovative fact as these have never been used for malting purposes. Therefore, biodiversity conservation will also be encountered
At the same time, the suitability for fermentation of malts obtained from Sicilian barley and wheat will be assessed, through the use of yeast strains already available on the market, to be used as a starter for the production of an innovative product entirely made in Sicily. Saccharomyces and non-commercial Saccharomyces yeast strains, identified among those offered by the most prestigious international companies and originally selected also for different uses, will be tested in Sicilian malts in order to verify the correct fermentation progress and the ability to act as a ""bio- aromatizzanti ”through the synthesis and transformation of aromatic compounds."