Milling & Baking News - November 25, 2014 - 24

Industry Activities 

Putting a positive spin on
whole grains products
BOSTON - For grain-based foods
manufacturers, there is no shortage of
positive whole grain messages for success. As part of a panel at the Whole
Grains Council's conference held Nov.
9-11 at the Hyatt Boston Harbor, representatives from three manufacturers
- Bob's Red Mill, Elevation Brands
and Barilla - offered different takes
on how to get those messages out.
Bob's Red Mill, Milwaukie, Ore.,
has been a staple in the whole grains
movement. The company's products
are recognizable for their logo featuring the company's founder, Bob
Moore. Dennis Gilliam, executive vice-president of sales
and marketing at Bob's Red
Mill, said the company has
found success by putting
itself out there, even in the
face of what can often be a
challenging marketplace.
"Not only do we have to
put ourselves out there, we
have to convince the public and the consumers to
come and find us and try
us, and make changes in
their eating lifestyles," Mr.
Gilliam said.
How is industry supposed to take
this message to consumers? Mr. Gilliam said Bob's Red Mill is doing this
through television commercials, competing in porridge making contests,
holding media tours and investing in
research.
Trust is key
Meanwhile, at Elevation Brands,
owner of the Ian's brand, "trust" is vital to delivering a positive whole grain
message for success, said Charles Marble, chief executive officer of Elevation
Brands, Framingham, Mass.
"If you have food allergies, obviously the food you have to trust," he
said. "And we try to do that through
our messaging with Ian's."
Ian's was started in 2001 with a
focus on children, but it has shifted
approaches recently to bring families into the fold as allergy awareness
among adults has increased.
"From a positive messaging, our
consumer research has shown that
when you're dealing with very serious messaging as in food allergens,
the consumer wants to know emphatically 'can I buy this or can I not buy
this?'" Mr. Marble said. "So we say
24 / November 25, 2014 Milling & Baking News

'No' on our packaging. We say no casein, no nuts. Our research has shown
that they like that."
Ian's successfully developed a
whole grain, proprietary breading
system using brown rice. The company took its learnings and now has 11
products with the Whole Grain Stamp.
"So you take that negative messaging and you throw a positive message
outlining the
attribute on
the front of the
package to let
people know
that our products are made
with antibiotic-free chicken, they're all
natural, no artificial colors,
preservatives, ingredients, but now
we have this Whole Grain Stamp to really promote the fact that gluten-free
does not have to be grain free."
With the whole grain breading system, Ian's has launched Sriracha Fire
Sticks, Southwest chicken tenders and
Smokin' Sweet BBQ chicken nuggets.
Try it, you'll like it
At Barilla, the mantra is simple:
"Every step we take we have to drive
to trial," said Anna Rosales, R.D., nutrition manager, Region America, Barilla, Bannockburn, Ill.
"There is still this perception with
consumers that whole grains don't
taste good," Ms. Rosales said. "I
know all of you in this room
know this isn't true, but a
lot of consumers are still
afraid to try whole grains."
To overcome this barrier,
Barilla held a whole grains
taste challenge to get the
positive message out on
whole grains. Consumers were allowed to try a
whole grain product. If they
didn't like it, they could
fill out a redemption form for a
coupon for regular semolina pasta.
"In the first six months of doing
this promotion we had a trial of over
575,000 boxes of whole grain pasta,"
Ms. Rosales said. "We had less than 400
people or so take us up on that offer of
wanting to have the semolina pasta.
That's an incredible drive to trial."
When Barilla was entering the

whole grain marketplace in 2008, it
did not have a 100% whole wheat pasta. Instead the company offered a 51%
whole wheat pasta with the remaining
portion being semolina. A big reason
the company avoided 100% whole
wheat was because of the taste perception barrier. Through positive messaging, though, Ms. Rosales believes the
barrier can be brought down.
"If you're able to overcome that,
and to have an experience and try it
in the best light, they're going to enjoy it," she said. "But something that
people need to understand is that you
can't take every recipe you have and
just make it whole grain. ... the flavor
is going to be off."
Having recipes and cooking tips is
really important, Ms. Rosales said.
Another way in which Barilla is putting a positive spin on whole grains
is getting the product into the hands
of its employees. At company locations in Europe, whole grain pasta is
now offered in a prominent position
in cafeterias and company cantinas.
The initiative has led to a doubling in
whole grain pasta consumption and
a near doubling in whole grain bread
consumption among the company's
employees.
"We just made it available every
day, and it doubled intake," Ms. Rosales said. "It's amazing. We put whole
grain bread before the white bread. It's
not rocket science."
In America where the company
does not have on-site cafeterias or
cantinas, Barilla caters in whole grain
pasta meals on "Share the Table" Tuesdays to encourage its employees to try
a Mediterranean style meal.
What's next in whole grains
for Barilla? Ms. Rosales said
the company will be transitioning to 100% whole
wheat, whole grain product
in 2015.
"We've done a lot of testing around this, and it's performed at parity or better
than our 51% whole grain
so we're excited to take that
stepped approach where we
start at 51%, we get consumers and people to try it and experience
it to know that our product is great,"
she said. "And then we take the next
step up to 100% where we can have
that heavy nutrition and health benefit and (consumers) understand that
we're going to be a supplier of products that they can trust. So we're excited for the next generation of whole
grain at Barilla." MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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Milling & Baking News - November 25, 2014

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