GAPTAEM engineers have developed colorful wheat varieties without the use of additives. As a result of hybridizing wild wheat species with modern varieties, purple, black, and blue wheat have been produced.

Engineers from the Southeastern Anatolia Project Agricultural Research Institute (GAPTAEM) have developed purple, blue, and black wheat varieties to give color to bread, pasta, cakes, biscuits, and other foods without the use of additives.

In order to contribute to the productivity and diversity of regional products, GAPTAEM engineers carried out work on the production of colorful wheat based on demands from food producers. After nearly 20 years of work, they succeeded in producing purple, black, and blue wheat by hybridizing wild wheat species with modern varieties.

The colorful wheat, which has been analyzed in laboratories for its health and nutritional benefits, will begin to be used in the food industry once it is registered.

GAPTAEM Director İbrahim Halil Çetiner stated that their efforts in seed breeding continue and mentioned that breeding work is ongoing to meet the demands of the industry. “We started working on colorful wheat based on requests from industrialists, pasta factories, and industrial producers of traditional firik. We knew that only one or two colors existed worldwide. But with these colorful wheat varieties, we now have new candidate varieties as a result of the hybridization and selection of our local and ancestral seeds. Some of the colorful pasta varieties can now be produced using our colorful wheat without the need for dye. Our bread wheat varieties will also be used by flour mills to make colorful flour for the cake and biscuit industry. We didn’t know there was colorful wheat in Türkiye. Some of our colors will be the first in both the world and our country. We have reached the end of a long-term project,” he said.

Agricultural engineer Ali İlkhan explained that they are working on developing wheat varieties with high nutritional value. He stated that after nearly 20 years of effort, they succeeded in producing wheat in various colors, adding: “We currently have three main colors—purple, black, and blue—and over 80 candidate wheat varieties with light and dark shades of these colors. Next year, these will be evaluated for industrial use. Cakes, biscuits, bread, and other final products will be made. Our goal is to provide a valuable food source. We’ve achieved a certain yield potential and quality, but it’s not enough just to eat; it’s also important to eat healthily. Right now, major research institutes around the world are conducting serious work on colorful wheat. We accelerated this process to keep up. Next year, colorful wheat will be planted on 20 decares of land.”