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The tax credit percentage for producers who contributed to the Wheat and Barley Checkoff, administered by the Western Grains Research Foundation in 2012 is 85 per cent for wheat and 86 per cent for barley. It should be noted that the checkoff on barley in Alberta is collected by the Alberta Barley Commission and will be subject to a different tax credit rate.

The percentages above are calculated by looking at the amount of the checkoff dollars spent directly on research and development; this is then determined to be the eligible portion. Each checkoff organization may vary, as they will have their own eligible percentage.

Producers can visit the WGRF website at www.westerngrains.com under the Current Info tab for links to the Canadian Revenue Agency website where the appropriate forms can be obtained and options for tax credit use are outlined.

For more information on claiming your SR&ED tax credit, please consult your accountant. For more information on the SR&ED investment tax credit, visit the Canada Revenue Agency website http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/txcrdt/sred-rsde/menu-eng.html.

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“It started off looking for additional ways to use barley, other than animal feed and malt. Brian Rossnagel, the barley breeder in Saskatoon, had developed barley varieties with unique characteristics, specifically from a starch point of view,” says Ames.

“We recognized that different barley genotypes had unique starch and beta glucan properties which provided opportunities for application to different food products.”

Ames says some of these unique characteristics lend themselves to creating doughs that were really surprising. She could make a dough out of just barley and water, resulting in products that were very extensible.

“The main food that occurred to me when I saw this extensible dough was a tortilla because I recognized that this was a limitation in the tortillas I had seen on the market. Selecting the right barley cultivar is key to producing a soft, pliable tortilla with good taste and colour,” she says.

Ames and her lab group have evaluated about 30 cultivars and genotypes for tortilla quality and they now have a good idea of what characteristics make the best product. The product is made with whole-grain flour and consists of 100 per cent barley and water without additives.

BARLEY CHIPS

She also developed a crunchy product, similar to a tortilla chip.

“We worked with a local manufacturer to make a really tasty barley chip. We produced the chips on a large scale to carry out sensory evaluation in a consumer trial at the University of British Columbia. For flavour and texture, the barley chip was rated very high but for colour, people still preferred the familiar yellow of a corn chip,” she says.

Ames realized that having a nutritious, tasty product produced on a lab scale isn’t enough to generate commercial interest. She proceeded to acquire a U.S. patent on her products.

A patent helps capture the industry’s interest. Knowing that they would have exclusive rights to a product or process provides industry with more incentive to undertake all the extra effort and time required to transfer this from a laboratory-scale project into an industrial-scale process, with packaging, labelling and consumer demand.

Consumer awareness is part of the driving force behind demand for new, healthy food products. Ames is working with other stakeholders in the barley industry, trying to get a health claim registered for barley beta glucan in Canada.

In early 2009, a generic health claim petition was submitted to Health Canada for reviewing the role of barley beta glucan soluble fibre in reducing blood cholesterol levels and therefore reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Ames recently took a one-year work transfer to the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals in Winnipeg, to pursue research on validating nutritional benefits of barley.

“The initial work was related to health claims that already exist in the world based on barley beta glucan’s effect on lowering cholesterol. Many clinical trials have already documented that,” says Ames.

“Now we’re doing new research looking at barley as a low-glycemicindex-type food. We’ve formulated different barley tortillas containing specific types and levels of fibre in order to evaluate their effect on glycemic response in a human clinical nutrition trial currently being conducted at the University of Manitoba.”

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The tax credit percentage for producers who contributed to the wheat and barley checkoff (administered by the Western Grains Research Foundation) in 2008 are 80 per cent for wheat and 82 per cent for barley.

The checkoff on barley in Alberta is collected by the Alberta Barley Commission and will be subject to a different tax credit rate.

The percentages are calculated by looking at checkoff dollars spent directly on research. This is then determined to be the eligible portion. Each checkoff organization may vary.

The tax credit is earned at a rate of 20 per cent for individuals and 35 per cent for corporate producers that are Canadian controlled private corporations (CCPC).

Doing the math

If a producer contributed $300 to the wheat checkoff in 2008, the eligible amount would be calculated by taking 80 per cent (the wheat percentage) of the $300 = $240.

If the producer files taxes as an individual they would take the $240 and would earn 20 per cent of this amount as a tax credit = $48.

For producers who file as a corporation, they would earn 35 per cent of the $240 as a tax credit = $84.

Producers can visit the WGRF website at www.westerngrains.comunder the Current Info tab for links to the Canadian Revenue Agency website where the appropriate forms can be obtained and options for tax credit use are outlined.

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