Other wheat derivatives

Wheat

Although wheat is closely linked to the image of bread, it is also at the origin of important food ingredients, such as:

• bran (+/- 20% of the grain): the husk of the grain, an important source of natural cellulose;
• starch (+/- 60% of the grain): the main element that, after a more or less thorough enzymatic hydrolysis, provides the very different characteristic syrups (DE);
• gluten (+/- 10%): the protein that is used to enrich bread, vegetable preparations, etc.

Gluten and starch

Starch and gluten are obtained by a wet-process separation of the flour that is exclusively mechanical: starch and gluten.

The first stage consists of separating the bran from the wheat grain and then making a finely ground grain to obtain a white flour. Water is added to the flour, and the operation of separating the gluten and the starch takes place naturally by the difference in density between the two elements. One of the objectives of the separation operation is to reduce the presence of gluten in the starch to a minimum. The level attained is approximately 50 to 60 ppm of gluten, whereas the Codex Alimentarius authorises the use of the term "gluten free" for levels lower than 200 ppm.

The gluten is then washed, dried, micro-ground, sieved and stored.

The starch in suspension in the water undergoes different phases of concentration, which allows the separation of top quality starches from the lesser quality starches. This starch milk can be directly transformed into syrups by hydrolysis or undergo the same end treatment as the gluten, i.e. drying, micro-grinding, sieving and storage.

The wheat syrups can thus be obtained either from the starch milk coming from the process that separates the starch from the gluten, or in a subsequent phase from the starch in solution.

Gluten    Starch    Alcohol