PROBLEM: How can bakeries differentiate their whole grain products?

SOLUTION: Ancient grain flours and multigrain blends help create distinctive flavor and texture profiles, while enhancing nutrition.

Bakers searching for innovative ways to formulate with whole grains can turn to Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra Mills for ideas inspired by ancient civilizations. Once integral to the Aztecs and other cultures of the Americas, Africa and India, ancient grains are as relevant today as they were several millennia ago. Not only do they supply the nutritional value and healthful benefits that consumers are looking for, but they provide a unique flavor and textural quality as well.

ConAgra Mills' new ancient grain flours give bakers a practical and easy way to formulate with specialty whole grains. Ancient grain flours (100 percent whole grain; gluten-free) available include amaranth, millet, quinoa, sorghum and teff. Bakers can buy amaranth flour, for instance, and custom blend it with their own whole grain blend to create a signature product with added value from a nutritional and flavor perspective. The individual ancient grain flours listed above comprise one of four ingredient platforms designed to support a spectrum of whole grain formulations.

Two varieties of premixed multigrain flour make up the second ingredient platform: a five-grain blend containing amaranth, millet, quinoa, sorghum and teff; and a nine-grain blend containing amaranth, millet, quinoa, sorghum, teff, rye, oats, Ultragrain^® wheat and Sustagrain^® barley. ConAgra Mills' Ultragrain is premium whole wheat flour that has the nutritional advantages of whole grains, yet offers the processing and finished baked quality of refined flours. Sustagrain is an identity-preserved barley variety that is high in dietary fiber and lower in starch.

The third ingredient platform includes two mix-and-go flour blends that combine 55 percent multigrain whole grain flour with 45 percent enriched wheat flour in a six-grain variety (amaranth, millet, quinoa, sorghum, teff and Ultragrain wheat), and a nine-grain blend (amaranth, millet, quinoa, sorghum, teff, Sustagrain barley, rye, oats and Ultragrain wheat).

A coarse eight-whole grain and seed blend serves as the fourth ingredient platform. This blend can be chopped rye, whole millet, Sustagrain barley flakes, cornmeal, chopped oats, flax and sunflower seeds.

“Adding whole grains to baked products provides another way for bakers to enrich foods,” says Mike Veal, vice president, marketing, ConAgra Mills. “Because the public is always interested in new premium bread offerings, ancient grains can help bakers meet these ever-evolving consumer needs. After all, the business model for specialty breads is built on uniqueness, superior quality and increasingly better nutrition.”

Quick Tip

ConAgra Mills' new ancient grain flours give bakers a practical and easy way to formulate with specialty whole grains. They supply the nutritional value and healthful benefits consumers want, with a unique flavor and textural quality as well.