Trace Your Grains | The Whole Grains Councilwholegrainscouncil.org/blog/2020/06/trace-your-grains

The past decade has been a boon for farmers markets, farm-to-fork restaurants, anddemand for local products in all corners of the food world. This demand exhibits a growthin consumer knowledge and attention to where food comes from. Transparency in everystep an ingredient takes to one’s plate has proved to be anything but a fad as consumerawareness continues to grow and encompass new questions and concerns. Identity-preserved (or IP) products are a result of this ever-growing desire for more information,providing the traceability and quality manufacturers are looking for and the transparencyconsumers are starting to demand.

Consumer Trends

At the Whole Grains Conference in 2018, Melissa Abbott of The Hartman Group presentedon consumer trends in contemporary food culture, and highlighted ‘mindful sourcing’.Consumers are asking meaningful questions about the origins of their food and seeking a

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narrative behind the ingredients they are buying. Value is placed not only on whereingredients come from, but how they are grown, and what chemicals were or were not usedto produce them. Consumers are increasingly interested in knowing about the soil healthand regenerative farming practices used to cultivate a specic ingredient. This is a changefrom the questions consumers historically were most concerned with, namely the amountof specic macro nutrients a product contained. Though the nutrients in a product, such asthe ber and fat levels, are still extremely important to consumers, these attributes nolonger enjoy consumers’ undivided attention. We have seen the market respond to thesenew consumer questions with packages carrying what Abbott calls ‘farm driven messaging’,which includes information about the actual space of production, and who is growing theingredients and how. The relatively recent uptick in certications and product labelscompeting for packaging space further exhibits how the market is nding innovative waysto meet consumer demand for more quality information on how ingredients are grown.

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Abbott also spoke to the importance of the progressive consumer, or those ahead of thecurve, asking these questions rst before they become more mainstream. These are theconsumers that were asking where their food came from, or if their beef was grass-fed 10-15 years ago. The staying power of their questions, Abbott pointed out, makes themimportant consumers to pay attention to. These consumers have moved ‘beyond organic’and are looking to know even more about their food and how it is grown.

Tracebility, Transparency, and IP crops

Whole grains confer health benets that are, and always will always be, important toconsumers, but they also offer an opportunity to answer consumers’ new questions,especially those relating to sustainability and growing practices. As an ingredient, grainsgive farmers and manufacturers the opportunity to communicate the information

about sustainability and regenerative agriculture that consumers are starting to demand.The grain world is brimming with the qualities consumers are looking for in products andconsumers are digging in to learn more, whether it’s becoming familiar with the storybehind Kamut®, learning about the quinoa used in their cereal, looking for moreinformation on perennial grains like kernza, or simply wanting to be sure their oats aregluten-free.

Generally, in a commodity food system, grain is gathered from many farms into onedistribution hub, making it impossible to parse out which grains came from which farms.Identity-preserved products, however, can be traced all the way back from your fork to thefarm where they grew. According to the Farmer’s Business Network, “Identity preservation

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is the process of segregating commodities that require a specic trait or quality of the cropto be maintained from seed until it reaches the end market.” So, with an identity-preservedgrain, a trait or quality – be it gluten-free or bio-dynamically-grown – can be tracedthrough each step of its journey to your plate ensuring the prescribed standards areupheld.

The Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance(SSGA), offers valuable insight intotraceability and IP products, providingresources that communicate the quality,diversity, and availability of identity-preserved specialty grain products to theirmembers, who are generally growers,producers, processors and shippers. SSGArepresentatives explained to us thattraceability doesn’t just provide transparencyand ensure safety, but also ensures growersget a fair premium for their products andtells the buyers that they’re getting what they expect and that it’s worth the price. “Webelieve that traceability is key for consumer condence and is of the utmost importance toensure that safe, healthy, high-quality food products have a market.” The SSGA has alsofound, similar to the Hartman Group’s conclusions, that consumers have started to ask formore information about where their food was grown and how. Identity-preserved eldcrops enable end users to tell a clear story with condence.

Regardless of the questions you are asking of the products on your grocery store shelves,the growing trends show that if you don’t already have your answer, you just might get itsoon enough. Transparency and traceability is in vogue, and manufacturers continue tond ways to answer consumers’ growing demand for more information about the food theypurchase. Let us know what grains you would like to see more farmer-driven messagingabout below! (Abby)

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