Enriched flour facts for kids

Enriched flour is a special kind of flour that has important nutrients put back into it. These nutrients were lost when the flour was made. The main nutrients added back are iron and several B vitamins like folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine. Sometimes, calcium is added too.

The main reason for enriching flour is to make it as nutritious as the original grain before it was processed. This is different from fortification, which means adding new nutrients that weren't there before. Many countries around the world, about 79 of them, require wheat or corn flour to be enriched or fortified.

Why Flour Was Enriched

Early Flour Choices

For a long time, especially in the late Middle Ages, white flour became very popular. People thought it was healthier than darker flours. It was also more expensive, so eating white flour showed that you were wealthy. Another big reason was that processing grains into white flour removed most of the mold and fungus that could grow on them. These molds and fungi often caused serious diseases.

Discovering Nutrient Loss

In the 1920s, a person named Benjamin R. Jacobs started to study how making flour from cereals and grains caused them to lose important nutrients. He also found ways to add some of these lost nutrients back into the flour. These nutrients are very important for staying healthy and can help prevent certain illnesses.

Wartime Health Boost

A big push to start enriching flour happened in the 1940s. This was during World War II, and countries like the UK and the United States wanted to improve the health of their people. Food was rationed, meaning there wasn't much of it, and it was hard to get enough nutrients from other foods.

Flour was chosen for enrichment because almost everyone ate it, no matter if they were rich or poor. In the United States, a major reason for the switch was that in 1942, the U.S. Army decided it would only buy enriched flour. This made enriched flour much more common.

How Flour Is Made and Nutrients Are Lost

From Grain to Flour

Turning whole grains into flour involves several steps. First, the outer layers of the grain are removed. These layers are the bran and the germ.

• The bran is the tough outer layer. It contains lots of fiber, some protein, and important minerals.
• The germ is the tiny embryo of the seed, which could grow into a new plant. It has B vitamins, minerals, and about 10% fat.

The germ is often removed because its fat content can make the flour go bad faster. Removing it helps the flour stay fresh longer. Unlike enriched flour, whole wheat flour keeps both the bran and the germ, which is why it's often seen as more nutritious.

The Endosperm and Processing

The largest part of the grain that's left after removing the bran and germ is called the endosperm. This part is like a food storage area for the growing plant. The endosperm has a lot of carbohydrates (for energy), protein, iron, and B vitamins like niacin and riboflavin. It also contains some soluble fiber.

Once the endosperm is separated, it's ground into a very fine powder. Then, it's sifted to remove any tiny pieces of bran or germ that might still be there. After this, a chemical process called bleaching is often used. This makes the flour look whiter. Chemicals like chlorine or benzoyl peroxide are used for bleaching. However, this bleaching step can destroy many of the nutrients that were still in the endosperm.

So, the final white flour product has much fewer of the original nutrients that were in the whole grain. Enrichment is the process that puts these important nutrients back in, making the flour better for you.

What Enriched Flour Must Contain

U.S. Requirements

In the United States, the FDA has strict rules about what enriched flour must contain. For every pound of enriched flour, it must have specific amounts of these nutrients:

• 2.9 milligrams of thiamin
• 1.8 milligrams of riboflavin
• 24 milligrams of niacin
• 0.7 milligrams of folic acid
• 20 milligrams of iron

The first four are all types of B vitamins. If calcium is mentioned on the label, then at least 960 milligrams of calcium must be added per pound. Similar rules apply to other grains like rice and corn that are enriched.

Many other countries also have their own programs to enrich flour, making sure people get these important nutrients in their daily diet.