Wheat Flour Milling Flow Diagram

Flour  characteristics for bakeries

Types of  flour used in bakeries

Does Bakery Units Buy Wheat ?

Above  headline has been  a search term  to arrive at  bakerybazar . Yes  All major bakery companies buy wheat from open market  either  for their  own flour mills or to hedge from any sudden rise in price .

This has been the strategy for bigger bakery units  to lower their prices  . Procurement cell of these companies keep their men in the  commodities market and with arrival of  wheat they  do the negotiations  and buy bulk wheat  which then can be transported to own storage or to be stored at  flour mills and these mills can be paid  only  conversion or milling charges .Miller take orders to fill in their idle capacities .

Second option is to have contract farming where companies enters into contract  with farmers for certain volume of wheat at  a price lower than the market price and buy that wheat after the cultivation . Farmer are also willing as they get bulk order at good price from any government minimum price  .



Many advantages  of this strategy .

• Reduce cost of flour
• Sure of quality of flour
• No Middlemen   hence  reduces cost
• Can sell excess wheat when  prices are high

Type of flour used in Bakeries

Bakeries procure different types of flour from millers for their different products , These flours can be categorised on the basis of nature , process and by gluten . Flour is obtained by grinding grain, most commonly of wheat but also from rye, buckwheat, barley, potato, corn etc.
The wheat kernel 'consists of three parts: bran covering the germ , kernel and endosperm.
During milling, the three parts are separated and recombined accordingly to achieve different types of flour.

Following are different type of flours

• All Purpose flour
• White wheat flour
• Whole wheat flour
• Bleached flour
• Unbleached flour
• Hard Flour or Strong Flour
• Soft Flour or Weak Flour
• Cake Flour .

Flour type depends upon the geography ,weather and gluten content