Flour extraction facts for kids

Flour extraction is a process that helps turn whole grains into different types of flour. Imagine taking a whole grain, like a wheat kernel, and carefully sifting it. This sifting helps separate parts of the grain to make flour that's good for baking and lasts longer.

What is Flour Extraction?

For a long time, people have sifted flour to make it better for eating. This process is called "extraction." It helps separate flour from whole grains for two main reasons:

• To make the flour last longer. Whole grains have natural oils and minerals in the bran and germ parts. These can make flour go bad faster. By removing some of these parts, the flour stays fresh longer.
• To make better bread. Removing larger pieces of the grain helps create a smoother dough. This dough can hold gas better when it ferments, which makes bread rise more.

Even when more of the grain is kept in the flour (called "higher extraction"), it still makes a smooth dough. This type of flour also keeps more of the natural flavors and nutrients from the bran and germ.

A Look Back: History of Flour

"White flour" became popular in the late 1800s. It was made using new machines called roller mills. These mills were different from old stone mills. They first added water to the outer parts of the wheat kernel (the bran and germ) to keep them whole. Then, steel rollers would break the starchy inside part, called the endosperm, into very fine flour.

The endosperm is naturally white, so the flour made from it was called "white flour." This new system was very clever. It could separate almost all the bran and germ from the endosperm. About 72% of the whole grain kernel became white flour. Roller milling quickly became the main way flour was made around the world. Even today, most flour made in places like the U.S. is roller-milled white flour.

Once white flour became easy and cheap for everyone to buy, new health concerns came up. Scientists learned that the bran and germ parts of the wheat kernel were very important for our health. Because of this, "artificial enrichment" was started. This means that some of the lost nutrients are added back into white flour.

Why Extract Flour?

There are two main reasons why flour is extracted:

• For better baking: Some extraction methods focus on making flour that helps bread rise more. This is done by removing only the larger pieces of flour. This type of flour is often called "High Extraction flour" by bakers. It's used to make many types of bread that are not whole grain.
• For longer shelf life and specific uses: Other methods are more thorough. They remove almost all of the bran and germ. This helps the flour last much longer and prevents it from going bad. This "lower extraction" flour (usually 72% or less) is what we often call Roller Milled White Enriched flour. It's used for many different baked goods, especially white bread.

Higher Extraction Flour

Today, we have refrigerators and better ways to store flour. This means that flour going bad quickly is less of a problem. So, some flour extraction now focuses on just removing the larger flour pieces. This helps bread rise more, but it still keeps most of the healthy bran and germ parts.

This is done by directly sifting the fine whole grain flour that comes from impact or attrition mills. Millers have found ways to make this higher extraction flour (which keeps more than 88% of the grain) just as fine as the lower extraction white flour (72% extraction) that removes all the bran and germ.