The first to appear, in 2004, was from ConAgra Mills, Omaha, NE. By applying a patented milling technology to a proprietary strain of wheat with a lighter-colored bran coat than traditional red wheat, the company was able to develop a lighter-colored flour with a finer particle size closer to that of refined flours. Because it still contains the native proportions of wheat bran, germ and endosperm, it’s a 100% whole-wheat flour with 12 grams of fiber per 100 grams of flour—more than four times that of refined.
Cargill, through its Horizon Milling affiliate, has tossed its white whole-wheat hat into the ring with a proprietary white whole-wheat flour made from a specially chosen strain of white spring wheat subjected to what Marinkovich describes as “advanced milling technology.” The resulting fine-grained, bake-friendly flour contains all the components of the whole grain.
Improved baking performance is a particular boon. “We’re continuously bake-testing and selecting for key characteristics: volume, color, texture,” Marinkovich says. “One of the things we have found in our bake-testing is that, relative to other whole wheats, with our ingredient you get better volumes, and you need to add less vital wheat gluten. You get a lot more mixing and process tolerance. And then you get a finished product that has the attributes consumers prefer—mild taste, soft texture, light color.”
Another new grain-based ingredient is isolated wheat aleurone, the layer of the bran that “sits on the edge of the endosperm,” Marinkovich explains. It’s isolated because “that’s where you concentrate a lot of the ‘goodness,’ so to speak, of whole grains,” he continues. “It’s high in fiber and vitamins and minerals. Isolating that layer allows us to deliver concentrated whole-grain nutrition.”
Isolated wheat aleurone is not a whole grain itself, but the product contains 45% dietary fiber and high concentrations of vitamins B6 and E, as well as potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and zinc, and antioxidants like tocopherols and tocotrienals.
“It has got a neutral color, a very fine texture and a neutral taste,” Marinkovich says. “So, you can put it into products to deliver that nutrition, and still have an appealing sensory performance.”
Flax, although not a grain, per se, is becoming popular in whole-grain mixes. A key reason is nutrition. “The way we have explored some of the health benefits of flax, we’ve explored them almost as if it were a whole grain,” says Kelley C. Fitzpatrick, M.Sc., nutrition consultant, NutriTech Consulting, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Flax first gained favor as a vegetarian source of alpha linolenic acid, or ALA, but, she says, “we’ve gone beyond the omega-3s and we’re looking at the lignins, the antioxidants, as well as the fiber component. As a nutritionist, I prefer to promote flax as the whole milled seed, because it’s a nice package. The components themselves work much more effectively when in synergy.” The whole seed is more stable, too. Proper milling can preserve that stability while also producing versatile snack ingredients.
Corn flour redux
While most of the ingredient buzz has centered on white whole-wheat flour, other grains haven’t been neglected. One type of whole-grain corn flour, for instance, is especially amenable to snack formulation and processing. “We start with whole-grain corn kernels, we send them through a dry-mill, and every element of the grain is still there in the same ratio as in the whole grain,” Witwer explains.