Malt: sprouting moves the zinc, the powder is mostly sugar

Malting means letting grain sprout and then drying it. The change that the absorption trials tracked is phytate. In 10 healthy students in Goteborg, a breakfast cereal of malted barley with live phytase gave 22.9 percent zinc absorption against 14.8 percent from plain barley flakes. Two malting and food companies paid for that trial. Calcium absorption in the same people stayed near 21 percent whichever cereal they ate. Malting and soaking oats cut the phytate in porridge from about 432 to 107 umol, and in 9 to 10 adults per experiment zinc absorption rose from 11.8 to 18.3 percent. Iron went from 4.4 to 6.0 percent, a relative gain of 47 percent. Both results belong to the malted grain you chew, since the enzyme in the sprouted kernel is what lowers the phytate. Whether any of that survives into boiled malt extract has not been tested. The malted drink powder on the shelf is a different food. An unfortified malted instant drink powder in the UK reference table is 82.5 g carbohydrate per 100 g, of which 54.8 g is sugars, and that record is a milk-and-malt drink base rather than pure malt. A US tablespoon of malted milk dry mix weighs 6 g and carries about 20 kcal.

How much is actually in it

• Unfortified malted instant drink powder is 82.5 g carbohydrate per 100 g of which 54.8 g is sugars, with 388 kcal, 5.7 g protein and 349 mg calcium in CoFID, while one US tablespoon (6 g) of malted milk dry mix carries about 20 kcal in USDA survey data. — CoFID 2021 record 17-825 (Instant drinks powder, malted, unfortified), Public Health England, OGL v3.0; USDA FNDDS 2705590 (Milk, malted, dry mix, not reconstituted) (n = 2 reference records) Evidence E source
  CoFID per 100 g: energy 388 kcal, fat 6.2 g, protein 5.7 g, carbohydrate 82.5 g, total sugars 54.8 g, fibre 2.1 g, calcium 349 mg, iron 0.60 mg, sodium 400 mg, riboflavin 0.91 mg, niacin 4.9 mg; FNDDS 2705590 per 100 g: 372 kcal, iron 16.36 mg (fortified mix), sodium 530 mg; 1 tablespoon 6 g

What your body absorbs

• From a malted cocoa drink fortified with ferric orthophosphate, fasting adults absorbed 24% of the iron, the same as from ferrous sulphate (23%), and adding 1 mg ascorbic acid per gram of powder did not raise it further (25%). — human subjects given 20 g malted cocoa powder in hot water, fortified at 0.5 mg Fe/g, labelled with stable 58Fe, faecal recovery; fasting Evidence B source
  Fraction absorbed (mean, SE): FePO4 + ascorbic acid 0.25 (0.02), FePO4 0.24 (0.02), FeSO4 0.23 (0.03); in rats a small prior meal more than halved absorption
• A malted milk drink carrying 5 or 10 ug a day of vitamin D raised serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D by 9.4 and 17.8 nmol/L as D2 and by 15.1 and 22.9 nmol/L as D3 over 4 winter weeks in 40 UK adults, with no significant difference between the two forms. — 40 healthy men and women in the UK during minimal UV-B exposure, double-blind parallel RCT, placebo or D2/D3 at 5 or 10 ug/d in a malted milk drink, 4 weeks (n = 40) Evidence B source
  Increments vs placebo (mean +/- SEM): D2 5 ug 9.4 +/- 2.5, 10 ug 17.8 +/- 2.4 nmol/L 25-OH-D2; D3 5 ug 15.1 +/- 4.7, 10 ug 22.9 +/- 4.6 nmol/L 25-OH-D3; dose-dependent (P < 0.001), no difference in incremental AUC

What cooking and storage change

• Breakfast cereal made from malted barley with active phytase gave 22.9% zinc absorption against 14.8% from plain barley flakes in 10 healthy adults, while calcium absorption stayed at about 21% either way, so malting raises zinc but not calcium uptake. — two groups of 12 and 10 healthy students in Goteborg, single meals of 60 g barley porridge or cereal with 200 g milk, whole-body counting of 65Zn and 47Ca over 4 weeks (n = 10 (malted cereal), 12 (hydrothermal porridge)) Evidence B source
  Malted barley cereal (70 mg P as InsP3-6, phytase active) 22.9 +/- 5.8% vs flakes (108 mg P) 14.8 +/- 4.6% zinc (P < 0.05); calcium 21.3 +/- 6.5 vs 18.5 +/- 4.3% (ns); hydrothermal porridge 25.2 vs 11.0% zinc (P < 0.001)
• Porridge from malted and soaked oats with phytate cut to 107 umol raised zinc absorption from 11.8% to 18.3% and iron absorption by 47% (from 4.4% to 6.0%) in 9 to 10 adults per experiment, compared with porridge from untreated oats at 432 to 437 umol phytate. — nine to ten human subjects per experiment, breakfast meals with oat porridge, extrinsic labelling with 65Zn, 55Fe and 59Fe, whole-body retention and erythrocyte uptake (n = 9-10 per experiment) Evidence B source
  Zinc 18.3% vs 11.8% (P < 0.05); iron +47% relative, 4.4% to 6.0% (P < 0.05); with phytate only reduced to 198 umol the iron gain (+25%) was not significant
• In pilot-scale malting of Fusarium-infected barley, electron-beam doses of 6 to 10 kGy cut deoxynivalenol in the finished malt by 60 to 100% while leaving the raw barley's toxin unchanged, at the cost of a 3 to 15% loss of germination at 8 to 10 kGy. — four barley lots with varying deoxynivalenol content, irradiated at 0 to 10 kGy and malted in a pilot-scale unit; malt quality measured (n = 4 barley lots x 6 doses) Evidence D source
  DON in finished malt down 60-100% at 6-10 kGy; no effect on DON in raw barley; germinative energy down 3-15% at 8-10 kGy; malt quality slightly affected

What it does to your health

• A fermented drink of oats, barley malt, lecithin and Lactobacillus plantarum 299v lowered the colitis activity score by 1.77 points more than a standard nutrition drink over 8 weeks in 74 patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis, with remission in 31% versus 15%. — 74 adults with a mild-to-moderate flare of ulcerative colitis (SCCAI 5 to 11), randomized to Profermin (n = 32) or Fresubin (n = 41), 8 weeks (n = 74) Evidence B source
  SCCAI mean difference -1.77 (95% CI -2.97 to -0.55, P < 0.005); remission 10/32 (31%) vs 6/41 (15%), P = 0.048; 50% score drop 53% vs 27%; dropout for lack of effect 13% vs 42%
• In 10 children and adults with severe motor and intellectual disabilities, six weeks of malted rice amazake was followed by a significant fall in the constipation assessment scale and a rise in Lactobacillales with a fall in Escherichia-Shigella in stool, with no control group. — 10 patients with severe motor and intellectual disabilities in Japan, single-arm, 6 weeks of malted rice amazake, 16S rRNA faecal sequencing (n = 10) Evidence C source
  Significant decrease in CAS; Lactobacillales up, Escherichia-Shigella down; response differed by baseline microbiota group (n = 5, 4, 1)

Safety, limits and interactions

• Malting barley varieties were less immunogenic to coeliac patient cells than wild barley in an in vitro screen, but still carried toxic gluten, so malt from barley is not safe for coeliac disease. — accessions of malting and wild barley tested with the G12 antibody, proliferation and interferon-gamma release from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and intestinal biopsies of coeliac patients Evidence D source
  Direct correlation between G12 reactivity and immunogenicity; malting barleys less immunogenic with reduced, not absent, toxic gluten
• Under US gluten-free labelling rules barley, including any species of the genus Hordeum, is a gluten-containing grain, and a food may only be labelled gluten-free when any unavoidable gluten is below 20 ppm, so barley malt and malt extract cannot carry that label. — foods labelled in the United States under 21 CFR 101.91 Evidence E source
  Regulatory definition: barley is a gluten-containing grain; gluten-free threshold below 20 mg gluten per kg of food
• Of 187 malting barley samples collected from Spanish breweries before processing, 93% carried Alternaria, 82.3% Aspergillus, 57.8% Penicillium and 27.8% Fusarium, and isolates of these fungi produced fumonisins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in culture. — 187 samples of malting barley from Spanish breweries, 150 surface-sanitised kernels per sample on three culture media (n = 187 samples) Evidence C source
  Alternaria 93%, Aspergillus 82.3%, Penicillium 57.8%, Fusarium 27.8% of samples; 30 of 34 F. graminearum isolates produced deoxynivalenol and zearalenone; ochratoxin A in 75% of Aspergillus section Nigri isolates

What people believe that the data does not support

• The EU register lists as non-authorised the claim that maltodextrin releases energy slowly and in stages, so the slow-energy story attached to malt-sounding sugars has no regulatory backing in the EU, and no claim under the name malt exists in either the EU or the US register. — EU Register on nutrition and health claims, snapshot 2026-09-21; substance Maltodextrin Evidence E source
  Claim status Non-authorised; malt itself: 0 claims in the EU register and 0 in 21 CFR 101

The bottom line

The health trials filed under this name are not trials of malt. One is a fermented drink of water, oats, barley malt, lecithin and Lactobacillus plantarum 299v. Over 8 weeks in 74 adults having a mild to moderate flare of ulcerative colitis, it cut the activity score by 1.77 points more than a standard nutrition drink (95 percent CI 0.55 to 2.97). Remission came in 10 of 32 on the fermented drink against 6 of 41 on the comparator. Malt is one of five ingredients there and the drink also carries a probiotic strain, so the result cannot be read as an effect of malt. A six-week pilot fed malted rice amazake to 10 people with severe motor and intellectual disabilities. Constipation scores fell significantly, with no control group to compare against, and amazake is rice saccharified with koji rather than barley malt. Two further studies use a malted drink only as a delivery vehicle. Iron added to a malted cocoa drink as ferric orthophosphate was absorbed at 24 percent against 23 percent from ferrous sulphate in 1983, and the authors put those high figures down to the subjects being fasted. Vitamin D at 5 and 10 ug a day in a malted milk drink raised serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D over 4 winter weeks in 40 UK adults, 8 per arm, with D2 and D3 performing about as well as each other. If you have coeliac disease, barley malt is out. US labelling rules count barley, including any species of the genus Hordeum, as a gluten-containing grain. A food may only be labelled gluten-free when unavoidable gluten stays below 20 ppm, which is a labelling threshold and says nothing about what one person tolerates. A laboratory screen used coeliac patients' blood cells and intestinal biopsies on malting barley varieties. They came out less immunogenic than wild barley while still carrying toxic gluten, and the authors offer that as a direction for plant breeding rather than as permission to eat it. Raw malting barley also arrives with its own fungi. Among 187 samples taken from Spanish breweries before processing in 2006, Alternaria was found in 93 percent of samples, Aspergillus in 82.3 percent and Fusarium in 27.8 percent. Isolates produced deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in culture, though a fungus in the raw grain is not a toxin measurement in the malt you buy. Malting itself is the step at issue: a pilot-scale malting experiment reports that using Fusarium-infected barley for malting may lead to mycotoxin production during malting, and the electron-beam dose of 6 to 10 kGy that cut deoxynivalenol in the finished malt by 60 to 100 percent is an industrial treatment, not anything a kitchen can do. We have no card on malt in pregnancy, in children, or alongside any medicine, so this page says nothing about those. One belief is worth naming. The EU register lists as non-authorised the claim that maltodextrin releases energy slowly and in stages. Maltodextrin is a starch hydrolysate that shares a name root with malt and little else. Under the name malt there are no claims at all, in the EU register or in the US rules. Non-authorised means the evidence did not meet the assessment bar. It is not a finding that the effect is false. The composition here comes from the UK table, because the USDA reference record filed under this name is malt liquor.

Sources

1. malt-c5-01 · reference dataset
   CoFID 17-825 Instant drinks powder, malted, unfortified: Energy 388 kcal | Fat 6.2 g | Protein 5.7 g | Carbohydrate 82.5 g | Total sugars 54.8 g | AOAC fibre 2.1 g | Calcium 349 mg | Iron 0.60 mg | Sodium 400 mg | Riboflavin 0.91 mg | Niacin 4.9 mg || FNDDS 2705590 Milk, malted, dry mix, not reconstituted: Energy 372 kcal | Iron 16.36 mg | Sodium 530 mg | 1 tablespoon 6 g
   CoFID 2021 (Public Health England, OGL v3.0), code 17-825; USDA FNDDS 2021-2023, fdc_id 2705590 · checked 2026-09-23
2. malt-c5-04 · randomized clinical trial
   In the human experiment the proportion of Fe absorbed from the drink plus FePO4 and ascorbic acid was (mean with SE) 0.25 (0.02), from the drink plus FePO4 0.24 (0.02) and from the drink plus FeSO4 0.23 (0.03)...It was concluded that the FePO4 used to fortify the malted cocoa drink was as well absorbed as FeSO4 but that the high levels of absorption were a reflection of the fasting condition of the subjects.
   Br J Nutr, 1983 · checked 2026-09-23
3. malt-c5-05 · randomized controlled trial
   Increments from baseline compared with the placebo group following 5 and 10 μg/d of D2 were (mean ± SEM) 9.4 ± 2.5 and 17.8 ± 2.4 nmol/L for 25-OH-D2 and following 5 and 10 μg/d of D3 were 15.1 ± 4.7 and 22.9 ± 4.6 nmol/L for 25-OH-D3, respectively. There was no difference between D2 and D3 groups in the incremental AUC of their respective metabolites.
   J Nutr, 2012 · checked 2026-09-23
4. malt-c5-02 · randomized crossover trial
   Zinc absorption from breakfast cereals of malted barley with phytase activity and containing 70 mg P as InsP(3)-InsP(6,) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than from flakes of barley, containing 108 mg P as InsP(3)- InsP(6) and no phytase activity, 22.9+/-5.8 vs 14.8+/-4.6% (n=10). The calcium absorption was 21.3+/-6.5 vs 18.5+/-4.3% (n=10) and did not differ significantly (P>0.05).
   Eur J Clin Nutr, 2003 · checked 2026-09-23
5. malt-c5-03 · controlled clinical trial
   The absorption of Zn from malted-oat porridge with a phytate (inositol hexaphosphate) content of 107 mumol was 18.3%, and significantly higher (P < 0.05) than from the control porridge containing 432 mumol phytate (11.8%)...The average increase in Fe absorption was 47%, or from 4.4 to 6.0%.
   Br J Nutr, 1996 · checked 2026-09-23
6. malt-c5-11 · food technology experiment
   Utilization of Fusarium-infected barley for malting may lead to mycotoxin production during malting and decreased malt quality...Although irradiation had no effect on DON in raw barley, DON decreased significantly (60-100%) in finished malts prepared from treated barley (6-10 kGy).
   Int J Food Microbiol, 2006 · checked 2026-09-23
7. malt-c5-06 · randomized controlled trial
   It consists of water, fermented oats, barley malt, lecithin, and Lactobacillus plantarum 299v...After 8 weeks of treatment, the mean reduction of SCCAI score was higher in the Profermin group (mean difference: -1.77 SCCAI, 95% confidence interval -2.97 to -0.55; P < 0.005), in intention-to-treat analyses. Remission defined as SCCAI ≤2.5 was achieved in 10 of 32 (31%) in the Profermin group and in 6 of 41 (15%) in the Fresubin group (P = 0.048).
   Inflamm Bowel Dis, 2013 · checked 2026-09-23
8. malt-c5-07 · uncontrolled pilot study
   Ten patients consumed the test food for six weeks, and their physical condition, dietary and medication status, and constipation assessment scale (CAS) were investigated...The results showed a significant decrease in CAS, and a significant increase in Lactobacillales and decrease in Escherichia-Shigella after consuming malted rice amazake.
   Nutrients, 2021 · checked 2026-09-23
9. malt-c5-08 · in vitro immunotoxicity study
   The malting barleys were less immunogenic, with reduced levels of toxic gluten, and were possibly less harmful to CD patients.
   Mol Nutr Food Res, 2012 · checked 2026-09-23
10. malt-c5-09 · codified federal regulation
    (iii) Barley, including any species belonging to the genus Hordeum...Any unavoidable presence of gluten in the food bearing the claim in its labeling is below 20 ppm gluten (i.e., below 20 mg gluten per kg of food).
    21 CFR 101.91, Gluten-free labeling of food · checked 2026-09-23
11. malt-c5-10 · prevalence survey
    One hundred and eighty seven samples of malting barley were gathered from Spanish breweries before processing...The most abundant fungi were species of Alternaria, Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium, which were present in 93%, 82.3%, 57.8% and 27.8% of the samples, respectively.
    Int J Food Microbiol, 2006 · checked 2026-09-23
12. malt-c5-12 · regulatory register entry
    POL-HC-7562 Maltodextrin Maltodextrin releases energy slowly and equally. Releases energy in stages and easily. Non-authorised
    EU Register on nutrition and health claims, claim POL-HC-7562, snapshot 2026-09-21 · checked 2026-09-23