What's in a grain? New guidelines for flour mills

The Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC) is working towards standardising the whole grain guidelines for flour mills and collaborating with Australian milling companies to develop a method for authenticating whole grain flour.

Whole grains provide essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements, and are a source of protective phytonutrients. Whole grain wheat flour contains all the parts of the wheat grain in similar proportion to the original grain; however, there is no globally accepted method to authenticate the correct ratios of each part in consumer products.

“Most commercial flour mills are designed to extract the middle of the wheat grain (endosperm) to make traditional white flour. To make whole grain flour, the germ and the bran are mixed back into the white flour. We are providing a method to authenticate that these components have been blended back in the correct proportions,” said Dr Hayfa Salman, from AEGIC.

The whole grain guidelines and authentication will be designed to provide an even playing field and increase consumer confidence in whole grain products.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Timmary