Milling & Baking News - February 26, 2008 - 1

THE NEWS WEEKLY OF GRAIN-BASED FOODS
FEBRUARY 26, 2008

bakingbusiness.com / foodbusinessnews.net

NEWS

Beyond whole grains

New chapter advances in bread market renaissance

I
Pellet pluses
Half products may play key roles
in nutritious convenient snacks
and baked foods.
Story on Page 43

LATE NEWS

Baked foods and cereal
C.P.I. posts strong advance
WASHINGTON - The Consumer
Price Index for baked foods and cereal products in January moved up
5.4% from a year ago, according to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the
U.S. Department of Labor. The index
for all food at home also advanced,
gaining 5.4%. The January index for
Cereals and Bakery Products before
seasonal adjustment was 228.7% of
the 1982-84 average, up 0.9% from a
month ago. For all food at home, the
January index was 207.9, up 1.3%
from December. The C.P.I. for Bakery Products in January was 244.6,
up 0.9% from December and up 5.5%
from January 2007. The January index
Continued on Page 8

n recent years, finding novel ways to
present whole wheat bread to consumers offered baking companies a
recipe for growth. New bread
varieties packing a full day's
whole grains into two slices
or whole grain varieties that
seemed indistinguishable in taste
and texture from white bread
are two of the prominent and
successful innovations that
have energized the bread
category. With the strongest
wave of innovation in a generation, bakers appear to be
satisfying consumers' still
growing appetite to increase
whole grains intake.
More recently, though, a
marked shift is evident in
new product introductions.
Rather than treating whole
grains as the end point, the
principal purpose of a new bread variety, whole grains have become the starting point for varieties that offer specific

additional health benefits of interest to
consumers.
Tapping into the nutritional credibility that comes with a whole wheat
bread, baking companies appear confident that an expanding array of new products will
be offered in the years ahead and
stand a good chance at success.
While in the 1970s, 1980s
and 1990s variety bread largely was focused on style or
form, products that gave the
appearance of being different
from white bread, today's variety bread introductions are
powerfully focused on function, substantive health benefits meeting specific consumer needs. These needs
begin with whole grains and
extend to a host of additional
interest - higher fiber, higher protein, organic flour, unusual grains,
cholesterol reduction and omega-3 fatty
Continued on Page 33

Large gain brings 2007 flour output
near record; 2006 data to be revised
WASHINGTON - Production of wheat
flour by U.S. mills in 2007 surged to
417,714,000 cwts, a total only 3,696,000, or
0.9%, less than the record of 421,270,000
in 2000, according to data issued by the
Census Bureau of the U.S. Department
of Commerce. Shortly after issuing the
2007 data, the Census Bureau said figures for 2006 would be revised when the
annual summary report is issued in May.
Census representatives, responding to

an inquiry from Milling & Baking News,
said that a reported flour production
capacity increase of 11,900 cwts per day
indicated for Missouri in 2007 from 2006
was an error. The earlier figure (90,100
cwts per day) inadvertently excluded
capacity. The error may have resulted in
the understatement of U.S. flour production (and Missouri's) by a figure in the
neighborhood of 6 million cwts both for
2005 and 2006.
These potential adjustments should
be kept in mind as the data on the pages
that follow are reviewed.
The past year's output gain affirmed
the recovery in flour production that
began with a rise in 2005 and continued
in 2006 with a larger gain. These three
years of increases reversed a period of
Continued on Page 18

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Milling & Baking News - February 26, 2008

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