White Wheat

Whole White Wheat FAQ

Courtesy of the Whole Grains Council

Whole white wheat is now available, with all of the nutritional advantages of traditional whole wheat, but with lighter color and milder taste.

Q. What is whole white wheat?

A. White wheat  is a different type of wheat that has no major genes for bran color (unlike traditional “red” wheat which has one to three bran color genes). An easy way to think of it is as a sort of albino wheat. The bran of white wheat is not only lighter in color but it’s also milder in flavor, making whole white wheat more appealing to many people accustomed to the taste of refined flour.

The term “white flour” has often been used to mean “refined flour,” so “whole white wheat flour” sounds like a contradiction in terms. But it is simply WHOLE flour – including the bran, germ and endosperm – made from WHITE wheat.

Q. Why is white wheat milder in flavor?

A. White wheat does not contain the strongly-flavored phenolic compounds that are in red wheat. This gives white wheat a milder flavor, and also means that products made with white wheat require less added sweetener to attain the same level of perceived sweetness.

Q. Is there any difference nutritionally between whole white wheat and "regular" whole wheat?

A. Experts consider these two kinds of whole wheat to be the same, nutritionally. Most of the nutrition differences among wheat varieties are driven by environmental conditions, such as weather and soil composition. For example, when crops are in a drought, the protein in wheat will be higher and may function differently.

Q. When did whole white wheat first become available in the US?

A. White wheat has been the principal type of wheat grown in Australia for many decades, but different varieties needed to be developed to match conditions in the US. Varieties of white wheat currently grown in the US were developed during the 1970s and 1980s by cross-breeding strains of red wheat. While most red wheat has three genes for red bran color, some have only one or two such genes; when these strains are cross-bred, a certain proportion of the offspring have no color genes.

Much of the early research and cross-breeding for US varieties of whole white wheat was done at Kansas State, and early crops were commercialized by the American White Wheat Producers Association. Today AWWPA is known as “Farmer Direct.” Based in Atchison, KS, Farmer Direct is a cooperative of over 300 producer members who have been working for almost two decades to grow and popularize white wheat. King Arthur, Farmer Direct Foods, and Hodgson Mill have been selling whole white wheat in retail markets since the early 1990s, and Sunnyland Mills has sold white-wheat bulgur in the U.S. since 1935.

Q. What proportion of the wheat grown in the U.S. is currently white wheat?

A. According to the USDA, white wheat accounts for at most 10-15% of America's total wheat crop.1 But this proportion has been changing rapidly. Production bushels of hard white wheat are estimated to have more than quadrupled between 2002 and 2004, rising from 13,021,903 bushels to 56,554,260.2 In Australia, the vast majority of the wheat produced is white wheat.

Q. What prompted the U.S. switch toward white wheat?

A. Ironically, the trend toward white wheat was not originally prompted by its advantages for making whole wheat products for the U.S. market. The original incentive was to reverse a decline in U.S. wheat exports. From 1980 to 1990, hard red wheat exports fell by 34%. Where U.S. hard red wheat constituted 60% of the market in Central and South America in the mid-1970s, market share had dropped to just 12% two decades later.3 It is largely a serendipity that this earlier drive to develop varieties of white wheat suited to the U.S. has resulted in greater availability of the white wheat option just as whole grain consumption and interest have risen.

Q. Does white wheat grow in different climate/geography than red, or could a red-wheat farmer easily switch to white?

A. In the U.S., white wheat farmers were once concentrated in the Northwest. In 1998, for instance, Montana led the nation in white wheat production – but this type of wheat made up only about 1% of American wheat.4 Now, with new varieties adapted to different conditions, white wheat can grow in virtually the same climate/geography as red wheat. Once a farmer has decided to plant hard winter wheat, he or she can then choose whether to plant red or white wheat.

According to the University of Nebraska, “The performance data on hard white winter wheat varieties shows that they are highly adapted and their grain yields and test weights are similar to those of hard red winter wheat. All production practices (seeding date, seeding rate, fertilization, and harvesting) are alike for hard white wheat and hard red winter wheat.

“The same equipment is used for both crops. However, extra attention is needed to avoid mixing the grain. A three to four year cropping interval may be need to completely control volunteer wheat when white wheat is to be planted after red wheat. Drills, harvesting equipment (combines, trucks, augers, grain-carts), and storage facilities must be cleaned carefully to assure mixture of the two classes does not occur. On-farm grain storage may be an indispensable aspect of white wheat production at its inception due to the fact elevators may not have sufficient demand to dedicate storage space for white wheat. Keeping grain of hard red winter wheat and hard white wheat separate is essential because of the substantially discounted prices paid for mixed grain.”

Additional information at the Whole Grains Council Website!