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When an intolerance to malt or barley is identified by a DRIA test , these foods must be eliminated from or rotated in the diet. This restriction applies to all forms of barley or malt (polished, pearl, puffed or flaked, coffee substitutes, soluble malt, barley flour and barley malt in all of their variations), but also to many products that might contain them in minor quantities or in an unapparent way, for example:
— Bread in almost all bakery preparations and special breads (not just barley bread and malt bread) and frequently even in normal or flat bread, malt is added to the starting dough. It’s always best to ask your bread-maker for a type of bread that doesn’t contain it. If he can’t guarantee this, you should purchase your bread elsewhere.
— Other oven-baked products: barley flour is often used to prepare crepes, snacks, cookies, breadsticks, Melba toast, bread and crackers (especially whole-meal), special breads, barley bread, malt bread. You must also be careful with bread crumbs. In these products, malt may be used as an “industrial sweetener”.
— Baby cereal: barley flour is usually included in the composition.
— Fermented beverages: particularly beer, whisky, gin and other drinks that have a juniper base and vodka.
— Breakfast drink powders: in addition to coffee substitutes made with barley, “yannoh” and soluble malt (Ecco, for example), malt may be present in various breakfast drink powders with other flavorings (such as Ovaltine).
— Industrially produced cereal flakes: (Kellogg’s for example) in which malt is often present. Herbalist and specialized stores generally stock cereal flakes or puffed cereals that are not malted.
— Industrially prepared creams and sauces: some sauces, soups and purees in boxes or bags, béchamel, desserts, puddings, gelatins. You must also be careful with macrobiotic sauces like miso that has a soy, barley and salt base.
— Products that contain ingredients described as “vegetable or cellulose thickeners”.
— Bran and whole-meal products: some bran and whole-meal products may contain mixtures of various whole-meal flours, among which barley flour.
Today, malt is an extremely serious industrial contaminant and is present in many unsuspected products. This poses a problem not only for those who are barley intolerant, but also for those who suffer from celiac disease (gluten intolerance) and must therefore eliminate it from their diets along with all wheat derivatives, barley, rye, oatmeal and spelt (emmer).
Alternatives
The difficulty in finding alternatives mostly regards bread, but this problem can be solved with the help of a baker whom you can trust. If you aren’t sure, bread may be substituted at meals with boiled and strained rice, corn meal polenta (possibly sliced and grilled) or potatoes (boiled, baked...).
At breakfast time, bread, cookies and Melba toast may be substituted with cereal flakes (only if they are malt-free), with puffed rice cakes (available in almost all supermarkets and always a good bread substitute).
In place of bread coating, corn flour or finely ground oatmeal flakes may be used. When it comes to desserts, homemade sweets are preferable because you can be sure of the ingredients. The same is true for snacks and cocktail morsels.
Many alternative recipes can be found, together with instructions for rotational diets, in the books by Dr Attilio Speciani “Le allergie: cause, diagnosi, terapie” [Allergies: Causes, diagnosis, therapies] (with Marina Speciani Necchi), “Resistere all’inquinamento” [Surviving pollution] and “Superare le intolleranze alimentari” [Overcoming food intolerances] (with Francesca Speciani), all published by Tecniche Nuove, Milan.
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© This food profile is copyright of SMA Srl Servizi Medici Associati, Via Ariosto 28, 20145 Milan,
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. Health director: Dr Attilio Speciani, M.D., Clinical allergist and immunologist. This material may not be used or reproduced without the publisher’s permission.
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Luigi Oreste Speciani 
