1. Which foods contain beta glucan
Beta glucan is a natural soluble fibre with a distinctive polysaccharide structure that brings many health bene
You can easily find beta glucan in many everyday foods, notably:
- Cereal grains: oats and barley are the richest beta glucan sources.
- Edible and medicinal mushrooms: shiitake, reishi, maitake and shiitake (dong co).
- Brewer's yeast and nutritional yeast: also contain high levels of beta glucan.
- Some seaweeds: contribute natural beta glucan fibre.
That is why, when people ask “which foods contain beta glucan”, the answers usually sit in the grain, mushroom and yeast groups — familiar, easy-to-supplement food sources.
2. Why beta glucan in food needs to be analyzed
Analyzing the beta glucan content of food is necessary because:
- Meeting nutrition labelling requirements: many countries have clear rules on declaring fibre content, including beta glucan, on food packaging.
- Substantiating health benefits: oat, cereal and functional-food products often advertise cholesterol-lowering effects thanks to beta glucan. Test re
- Controlling product quality: it helps manufacturers keep the active-ingredient content stable across production batches.
- Supporting research & development: accurate beta glucan analysis supports new product development, especially functional foods
3. The Enzytec™ Color GlucaTest® beta glucan analysis kit – R-Biopharm
To meet the demand for fast, accurate analysis, R-Biopharm (Germany) developed the Enzytec™ Color GlucaTest® kit — a modern solution in food testing.
🔹 Key advantages
- Enzymatic - spectrophotometric principle: guarantees high accuracy and repeatability.
- Versatile application: analyzes beta glucan in oats, barley, cereal products, functional foods and pharmaceuticals.
- Simple workflow: quick handling, suitable for testing laboratories and research facilities alike.
- Meets international standards: aligned with global food testing requirements.
🔹 Principle
- It is a quantification method for high-molecular β-Glucan, designed specifically for malt-mash and wort samples from barley, following international standards such as EBC 4.16.3, MEBAK 3.1.4.9.2 and ASBC
- The kit works on a colorimetric spectrophotometric mechanism: the sample is treated with Solution A to produce a colour reaction that changes light absorbance at 550 nm (± 5 nm)
- Once the reaction is complete, the measured colour intensity correlates directly with the β-Glucan concentration — allowin 100–500 mg/L
🔹 Usage procedure
1. Sample preparation
- As recommended by EBC 4.5.1: the extraction procedure (malt mash congress mash) is mandatory for compliance with EBC 4.16.
- If you want to determine total β-Glucan (soluble + insoluble), the sample must be heated at 80 °C for 15 minutes to dissolve the gel fraction. Then let it cool, and filter or centrifuge if the sample is highly turbid.
2. Preparing the kit
- E3500 (GlucaTest S125): 40 tests — 1 bottle of Solution A (125 ml) plus a calibrator set (6 tubes, from 0 to 500 mg/L)
- E3550 (GlucaTest L500): 160 tests — 4 bottles of Solution A (125 ml each) and the same calibrator set
- The reagents are ready to use; bring them to room temperature (20–25 °C) before use, avoid contamination and never mix different lots. Store at 2–8 °C, never frozen
3. Performing the measurement
- Pipette 200µL of each calibrator into individual cuvettes (one per level: 0, 100, …, 500 mg/L).
- Pipette 200µL of prepared sample into the matching cuvette.
- Add 3 ml of Solution A to each cuvette.
- Wait 30 minutes for the colour reaction to reach its end-point
- Measure absorbance at 550 nm with a spectrophotometer
4. Interpreting the results
- The calibration curve is built from the calibrators. Read the β-Glucan concentration of each sample against its absorbance.
- The linear range of the method is 100–500 mg/L; samples outside it must be diluted or handled appropriately.
🔹 In short, the procedure
Understanding which foods contain beta glucan and measuring it accurately not only keeps labelling transparent for producers, it also secures the health benefits. With the Enzytec™ Color GlucaTest® from R-Biopharm, laboratories and food companies can confidently control quality and substantiate product value
👉 See more information about the Beta Glucan test kit | Enzytec™ Color GlucaTest®
