A new grain has been developed that is designed to ward off one of the biggest killers of Australians - bowel cancer.
It tastes no different to traditional grains, but could end up in everyday foods on supermarket shelves.
The key ingredient is a new variety of barley which is high in resistance starch.
Dr David Topping says it was developed by the CSIRO in Canberra using traditional grafting methods.
"This resistance starch escapes into a a large bowel where it is broken down by the bacteria, forming compounds which we believe lower the risk of bowel cancer.
"We probably could reduce risk by about 30 per cent."