Stepping Up Whole Grains

Looks like Kraft Foods is serious about improving the whole grain content in more than one hundred of their popular cracker products, a step they say will "contribute more than nine billion servings of whole grain to American diets" by the year 2013. That's definitely a significant number of whole grain servings. What does that spell for wheat growers? While Kraft representatives claim that it won't increase the quantity of wheat they purchase by any major measure, it will affect which variety of wheat growers may use. Wheat growers in the western half of the U.S. are in an especially good position due to the arid growing conditions and the areas higher resistance to seed-borne agents that cause disease, such as fungus or bacteria; a factor that makes it much easier to use the entirety of the wheat berry. Rather like some fruits and vegetables where a lot of the nutrients are in the outer peel, the bran, or outer skin of the wheat berry, has a major portion of the wheat berry's vitamins, fiber, and minerals. Whole wheat flour uses that bran. And as the majority of consumers have discovered, whole grain no longer means less taste.