GoodGrain

"GoodGrain: Assessing Food Safety, Quality, and Nutrition in Novel Climate-Friendly Perennial Cereal."

The GoodGrain project explores perennial cereal rye, a promising new crop that could make our food system more sustainable.

⌐ The project has been granted 2.979.451 DKK in funding.  
⌐ The project starts on 1 March 2026 and will end on 31 December 2027.

Introducing the GoodGrain project

Background for the project:

Annual cereal crops like regular rye are the basis of our food systems, but they require replanting every year. This leaves soils vulnerable to losing nutrients and degradation, and puts a lot of pressure on farmers to get things done at certain times of the year. Perennial versions of cereals, which would grow back year after year without replanting, could offer big advantages: less soil disturbance, more roots to suck up nutrients and anchor soil, more flexibility for the farmer, and greater ability to handle weather extremes.

Perennial cereal rye is one of the most promising perennial cereals. However, we know little about whether perennial rye needs extra processing to ensure it is safe to eat, how well its grains work for baking bread and other foods, or its full nutritional benefits. The GoodGrain project fills these gaps by creating the first detailed dataset on a recently developed perennial rye variety that's already showing good yields in Denmark.

The activities 

The team will:

• Check for natural contaminants (like alkaloids from fungi) in perennial vs. annual rye across different fields and years.

• Test the grain's quality and how it performs in baking, from lab tests to real bakery trials.

• Explore links between the plant's perennial nature, healthier soils, and higher levels of beneficial compounds like ergothioneine (an antioxidant tied to good soil health).

• Build networks with farmers, food companies, retailers, and policymakers through events and open sharing of all results.

Outcomes

Led by experts in food science, sociology and agronomy from Aarhus University, Wageningen University, and industry partner Meyers, all findings will be openly shared to speed up progress for researchers and industry alike.

By addressing knowledge gaps regarding safety, baking quality, and nutrition, GoodGrain will provide the key knowledge needed to bring perennial rye into Danish and European diets. This will help create a more climate-friendly, resilient, and environmentally positive food future.