A multi-year comparison of tritordeum with wheat and minor cereals: Mycotoxin occurrence, free asparagine content, and acrylamide formation

Introducing minor and novel cereal species into cropping and food systems requires the evaluation of their safety traits, including grain contamination with mycotoxins and acrylamide (AA) formation potential. This study has examined commercial varieties of tritordeum, bread wheat, spelt, emmer, durum wheat, barley, triticale, and rye grown under similar agronomic conditions over three consecutive growing seasons at one location in Northern Italy. Whole-meal and refined biscuits of sixteen genotypes were investigated for their grain contamination with Fusarium spp. mycotoxins, free asparagine (ASN) content, and AA formation. Deoxynivalenol (DON) was the predominant mycotoxin, with contamination being significantly influenced by the growing season. Tritordeum consistently accumulated DON at comparable levels with those of durum wheat and susceptible bread wheat genotypes. ASN accumulation was influenced by the genotype and the growing season, with rye genotypes showing the highest concentrations and high-protein bread wheat the lowest. ASN was significantly associated with AA formation in the whole-meal and refined biscuits, although differences in the AA/ASN molar ratio among and within the cereal species indicated that the flour composition also affected AA formation. Refining reduced ASN by around 70% and decreased AA formation. GGE analysis revealed that genotype effects predominated over genotype × year-location environment interactions for DON and ASN. Overall, tritordeum showed comparable food safety characteristics with durum wheat for DON contamination and an intermediate ASN accumulation and AA formation potential. These findings highlight the importance of integrating field and processing contaminants when evaluating novel cereals and of including food safety traits in breeding and cultivar selection programs.