IBIE - 2016 Show Daily, Sunday - 18

How flour fits into 'clean and safe' C lean label clearly takes front-andcenter with bakery formulators today, according to Kent Juliot, Ardent Mills' vice-president of research, quality and technical solutions. "Most of our conversations with customers are about this trend," he said. "Right now, it's hard to tell whether this is being driven by just a vocal few consumers or the large masses. But that's what food manufacturers perceive consumers to want." Ardent Mills (Booth No. 9914), recently introduced organic and sprouted wheat flours, and both fit clean-label formulating needs. But the sprouted style offers something extra, a possible answer to not only clean label but also the problem of declaring "added sugars" quantities on food packages. "Our customers have reported being able to reduce sugar levels by using our sprouted flour," Mr. Juliot noted. Seeking inspiration from simpler times, formulators give increasing interest to fermentation. "Through its beneficial byproducts, it offers a way of using an older method to get back to cleaner label," Mr. Juliot added. "All those processes - brewing, roasting, malting - are old-time techniques that may put back the functional properties removed when cutting out additives." There's another aspect to "clean" - prevention of allergen and pathogen contamination. Recent incidents with peanut and E. coli contamination have implicated flour, although not any produced by this flour milling 18 * IBIE * and ingredient company. "The safety of food and people is a foundational principle at Ardent Mills, one of four on which we base our business," Mr. Juliot said. "It is not new to us. Those recent recalls re-emphasize the food safety journey the food industry and Ardent Mills are on." FSMA regulations went into effect in September and provide a basis to have key conversations with customers on controlling the risk of pathogens that may be present in untreated flour. In some applications, there may be a need to control the risk before the customer receives the flour. Ardent Mills implemented its SafeGuard process to do that. "In addition to the specialized SafeGuard process, we follow food industry, not just flour milling, food safety best practices at all of our community mills," Mr. Juliot explained. "Examples include routine environmental microbial monitoring and adverse event hygienic restoration. An additional internal project we Juliot call Plant Pristiine raises the bar to strive to operate in pristine conditions 24/7." Clean label is sometimes framed as a sustainability issue, and a related concern - food waste - has recently emerged. "It's more prevalent in Europe but is gaining traction here in the States," Mr. Juliot said. The problem is that many of the ingredients removed when cleaning up labels were present to lengthen shelf life and, thus, reduce the amount of food that gets thrown away. "This poses conflicting priorities," he observed. "Will bakers need to look at alternate distribution methods - freezing, for example - to avoid food waste when getting the product to the market? And what about shelf life in the home? This poses a real paradox." To support its customers, Ardent Mills opened a flour innovation center in Denver this spring. It includes separate labs for flour research, applications, analytical and bake testing, along with a culinary center. - Laurie Gorton, Baking & Snack Ardent Mills (Booth No. 9914) rolls its mobile innovation center onto the show floor at IBIE 2016. Ardent Mills Sunday, October 9, 2016

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