A look inside a flour mill
From the wheat grown in the field by the farmer to the flour milled by the millers and on to the bakery, finally bringing your sliced pan home to your kitchen, the journey your bread makes is a traditional one. Over the years, the flour millers have worked very hard to ensure continued availability of top quality wheat flour to both consumers and bakers.
Farmers grow different varieties of wheat that will produce flour with different properties so that the baker can use the most suitable flour for the products they want to make and that their customers want to buy. For example, some flours are best for making light, airy breads; others for making cakes or biscuits; and others for making pizza. “Strong flour” is called that because it contains more gluten protein than other flours. This makes it ideal for bread-making where dough needs to expand and rise well in order to produce a light loaf. Strong flour is not suitable for cake recipes.
The farmer who grows the wheat, harvests it using a combine harvester, and brings it to the flour mill. When the miller brings the harvested wheat into the mill, it is tested to measure the amount of protein and moisture in the wheat. Then the wheat is sorted into different varieties and cleaned to remove anything that shouldn’t be there – like small stones, wood, and other grains such as barley or oats.
The wheat grains are then soaked to soften it and make it ready for milling. During milling, large rollers are used to crush the grains. No doubt you remember seeing old fashioned stone mill wheels that were used to grind wheat and corn and other grains. Things have moved on a bit since then but the principle is still the same!
What’s left is the white part of the grain, called the ‘stock. For the white flour used in our sliced pans, a sieve is used to remove the wheatbran and wheatgerm. Then, it’s ground down further and sieved again to give you flour. Unlike white flour, wholemeal flour includes the bran and the germ. The flour is then bagged and transported to the bakery.
During milling, large rollers are used to crush the grains.
Next, the flour is ground down further and sieved a second time to give you smooth, fine flour. White flour is fortified with B Vitamins and minerals in the flour mill, and so these are often listed also. You might see it listed as Wheatflour (Wheat, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Thiamin, Niacin). The flour is then bagged and transported to the bakery to be baked into fresh bread for you every day.
One of the most commonly heard false claims that is made about bread is that the flour in it has been bleached. This is false. All flour is unbleached in Europe and has been for over 20 years. Bleaches are not approved in foods in the EU, so flour, or any other food with bleach in it, can’t be sold by any country in the European Union, including Ireland.
According to the European Flour Millers, flour mills are the largest single food users of domestic wheat, rye and oats in Europe. The European flour milling industry employs over 45,000 people and 350,000 indirect labour at European farm level for a turnover of around €15 billion! It is the leading food industry in grain processing, using around 47 million tonnes of common wheat, rye and oats a year to produce around 35 million tonnes of flour on an annual basis.
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