World Grain - May 2008 - 64

MILLINGOPERATIONS

Further information can be found
from the following sources:
Food and Drug Administration
of the United States
(www.fda.gov)
Flour Fortification Initiative
(www.sph.emory.edu/wheatflour/index.php)
Micronutrient Initiative
(www.micronutrient.org)
GAIN
(www.gainhealth.org)
The Bread and Flour Regulations 1998
(www.opsi.gov.uk)

United States (U.S.) and the United
Kingdom (U.K.), during World War
II, when there was concern about the
nutrition of a population lacking many
of the wholesome foods available in
peacetime.
It was in 1963 that the Codex Alimentarius Commission, established by the
FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO), began the harmonization
of international standards for foods.
However, the emphasis in the Codex
Alimentarias, as it applies to flour and
baked goods, is on additives and processing aids rather than on nutrition.
WHEAT AND MILLING
The wheat kernel is rich in minerals
and potentially beneficial trace ingredients, some of which are inevitably
lost during the milling process. Most of
those vitamins, minerals and phytates

are concentrated in the outer layers,
particularly the aleurone layer, which
are removed in conventional milling in
the quest to produce flour for palatable
white bread.
The phytates inhibit the body's ability
to absorb iron. However, since phytates
and iron are lost in roughly equal proportions during milling, the refined
flour has less iron but fewer phytates
so that added iron will be readily
absorbed.
Bran contamination has long been
known to adversely affect the perceived
quality and appearance of baked bread.
For this reason the so-called "ash test,"
which gave a measure of the bran contamination in conventional milling
processes, was established as one of
the principal means to measure flour

Recent milling processes such as debranning and peeling are able to remove
the bran contamination while retaining
more of the colorless aleurone layer,
together with its mineral components,
in the flour, thus rendering the ash test
inappropriate for continued use.
Fortunately, more recent analytical
techniques, such as those based on
image analysis or near infrared (NIR)
technology, provide better correlation
with the rheology of the flour (and
thus its suitability for baking) than ash
determination.
ENRICHMENT OR FORTIFICATION
During World War II, the authorities
in the U.S. and Great Britain, as part of
programs of public health, mandated
the addition of Vitamins B1 (thiamine),

Fortification is the addition of nutrients at higher levels than
naturally occur, or the addition of nutrients that are not typically present in natural form.

quality. However, ash merely indicates
the amount of inert mineral matter in
the flour. These minerals are nutritionally beneficial and have little or no effect on baking. It is thus a perverse but
unintended consequence of this most
commonly used measure of flour quality that retention of these minerals is
militated against by the ash test.

B2 (riboflavin), iron and niacin to white
bread flour. The British authorities additionally required the addition of calcium carbonate because of concern regarding the effects resulting from production of the high extraction flours.
The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) of the U.S. has attempted to
strike a balance in its regulations so

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IGC Grains
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TUESDAY 10 JUNE 2008
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TO BOOK OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.igc.org.uk
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For more information, see Page 82.

May 2008 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

http://www.fda.gov http://www.sph.emory.edu/wheatfl http://www.micronutrient.org http://www.gainhealth.org http://www.opsi.gov.uk http://www.igc.org.uk http://www.World-Grain.com

World Grain - May 2008

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