Heat Treated Flours, a Better Foods Innovation
With a vast legacy that spans decades and immersed in a dynamic world of food innovation, the Better Foods group has been at the forefront of providing high quality flour and food ingredient solutions to meet the demands of the evolution of the food industry, continually striving to reconcile quality with nutritional balance in their products.
As a specialised supplier and with a commitment to excellence and innovation, the Group has acquired an innovative heat treatment technology for rice, wheat, maize, bran and wheat germ flour, which allows the selective modification of the properties of the final product. Unlike conventional flour, heat-treated flour undergo a process of exposure to carefully controlled high temperatures, which improves the flour’s flavour profile and shelf-life.
The flour which is treated at high temperatures has a strong water absorption capacity, due to the process of gelatinisation of the starch in the flour. The starch granules swell with water, adding viscosity to the dough and stabilisation for the cooking process. When used as a food coating dough, this stability improves the coating’s adherence.
One of the benefits to be gained from the heat treatment process is that the treated flour exhibits remarkable resistance to microbial contamination, resulting in a significant improvement in the product’s shelf life
“This innovation provides customers with superior durability in parallel with the more traditional route of flour production”, says Ema Dias, responsible for Quality Control and R&D at the group.
Another advantage that this process can bring is the reduction of food waste, in alignment with sustainable practices.
Heat-treated flour has a wide range of applications, such as flour for cakes, toppings, soups, sauces, baby food, cookies and biscuits, fresh pasta, frozen products, “binders”, partial replacement of starch for food and non-food industries, mixed flour for special recipes or flour preparations.
“From a perspective of affirmation in the national and international markets, the introduction of this flour heat treatment technology represents another bet on innovation and differentiation by Better Foods group”, says Luís Ramos, member of the Board of Directors of the Better Foods group.
Better Foods group is the largest Portuguese milling group, a producer of flour and food ingredients with the important mission of being the basis of nutrition in Portugal and abroad.
Created in 2018, it consists of four mills, a deep-frozen final product company and two logistics facilities. Therefore it is one of the most important B2B groups in the Portuguese food sector, dedicated to the transformation of cereals and everyday foods.