I am millerkay, a miller by profession, in this my new post I will like to show the technologies and processes behind the production of wheat flour.
Before I proceed lets quickly talk about wheat flour. Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption.
WHEAT
Wheat is the most common cereal available all over the world and is in even higher demand in recent years due to its abundant health benefits.
Over the years, it has shown itself to be one of the most successful and sustainable cereals crops in the world. It originated in Southwestern Asia, but today it is grown in countless countries and it is primarily used for baking bread products.
Foods like bread, pasta, crackers, bagels, cakes, and muffins are just a few examples of wheat sources. Wheat is believed to be one of the most wholesome food items, and it ensures a diet rich in nutrients.
Wheat is processed commercially into flour in a flour mill and I happens to work in one in Nigeria.
Wheat is stored in a silo prior to its processing into flour in any flour mill. All pictures in this post is taken from the flour mill I work with here in Nigeria.
Types of flours
(1) White flour
Refined white flour consists of the ground endosperm of the wheat kernel which includes
a) All purpose flour
b) Bleached flour
c) Bread flour
d) Bromated flour
e) Cake flour
f) Durum flour
g) Semonila among others
(2) Whole-wheat flour
Since roller milling separates the bran and the germ from the endosperm, the three components actually have to be reconstituted to produce whole-wheat flour. (The germ and bran are visible in the flour as minute brown flecks.).
Now to the making of the wheat flour
Stage 1
Wheat cleaning – This is to remove the dirts and foreign material attached to the surface of the wheat, and this is accomplished by different machines such as separator, aspirator, destoner, scourer e.t.c.
Stage 2
Tempering of the wheat - This process is done in order to mellow the bran cover of the wheat to allows easy removal of it during grinding in the rollermill and also to raise the moisture content of the wheat to the acceptable level for the flour to be produced. This is achieved by a machine called MYFE , MOHZ and DAMPNER.
Stage 3
Second tempering - The tempered wheat is allowed to rest in a tempering bins in other to give room for proper penetration of the water into the wheat kernel.
Stage 4
Milling – milling of the tempered wheat is done in order to break open the wheat kernel so as to scratch out the endosperm from inside the kernel, ground , and also separate the various section of the flour mixtures into the three main products of the wheat which are flour, germ and bran. In this stage the major machines involves are rollermills that does the grinding, plansifter that does the shifting of the product into the various parts and recycling aspirator, purifier that separate bran particles from the flour.
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Stage 5
Packing of the processed flour… after the production of the flour, it is packed into polythene bages and sealed and sacked in the store.
Health benefit of wheat flour
Research has already proven that wheat is extremely beneficial for healthy living. It considerably lowers the hazards of heart diseases, owing to its comparatively low-fat content. It also regulates the blood glucose levels in diabetics.
Wheat provides you with an immense energy source through all parts of the grain kernel, including the bran, germ, and endosperm. The nutrient value of wheat is retained even after processing it into flour. However, if you wish to get the maximum benefit out of wheat products, it’s advisable to choose those products that are made from whole-wheat flour rather than the refined varieties.
This is a general overview of the making of a wheat flour. if you want a more detailed post on this you can communicate through the comment box and will be glad to do justice to it. I hope you have been able to gain one thing or the other from it. Thanks and God bless.!
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