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When you eat quinoa, you can see that you're truly eating a "whole" grain. (Quinoa is really a seed, but it acts more like a grain.) But did you ever wonder how far removed a piece of bread is from a kernel of wheat? Here's an insider's look, courtesy of Kendall McFall, a flour-milling instructor at Kansas State University.

Step 1. A combine harvests the wheat and removes the whole-grain kernels from the stalks. The kernels are then transported to the mill.

Step 2. At the mill, corrugated rollers break open the kernel and scrape the carb-loaded endosperm away from the bran--the high-fiber outer husk—and the vitamin-rich germ.

Step 3. After the rollers pulverize all parts of the grain kernel, they're fed through sifters, which separate the larger bran and germ particles from the endosperm.

Step 4. The bran and germ are routed into different machines for further processing while rollers smooth the remaining endosperm fragments into a fine powder, or flour.
For Refined Flour

Step 5A. The endosperm flour is enriched--as mandated by federal law--with thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, folic acid, and iron. The flour may also be bleached at this point.
For Whole-Wheat Flour

Step 5B. The powdered endosperm, bran, and germ particles are combined in the same proportion as was present in the whole kernel to create whole-wheat flour. It is not enriched.

Step 6. The flour is packaged and ready to be made into bread.





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