MAP Helps Philippines Company Create Clean Label Product

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) invested Market Access Program (MAP) funds to help a leading Philippines flour miller develop a “clean label” cake flour product with Western White wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest.

Philippine Foremost Milling Company is a top producer of high-grade, quality flour in a strong wheat importing market. Foremost wants to carve out a competitive niche in the clean label market by developing an unchlorinated cake flour. Using MAP funds and its network of milling experts supported by Foreign Market Development (FMD) program funding, USW has worked closely with Foremost to successfully test blends of U.S. Western White, a subclass combining soft white and white club wheat.

While chlorination is a common and safe process, Philippines consumers are increasingly concerned about food additives. USW technical and trade support helped Foremost product managers develop a bright white, unchlorinated flour using Western White wheat.

Starting in 2019, USW used MAP-funded seminars and donations of Western White wheat by the Washington Grain Commission helped Foremost test the subclass on Japanese- and Korean-style sponge cakes. The Washington Grain Commission also helped sponsor research with Foremost at the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, OR. That work analyzed the best Western White flour blends for Philippine sponge and chiffon cakes.

After COVID-related delays, USW Regional Technical Director Peter Lloyd, who is based in Casablanca, Morocco, conducted a five-part webinar series with Foremost milling managers between January and March 2021.

This assistance gave Foremost the tools to launch a new unchlorinated cake flour in 2021, utilizing 48,486 metric tons of Western White wheat. This was the first Western White wheat sold to Philippines millers since 2012/13 and returned an estimated $20 million to wheat farmers and the wheat export industry in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.