Grainswest - Winter 2026

Winter 2026 Grains West 28 Multicultural bread products such as Italian ciabatta, shokupan and Nigeran Agege, as well as butter-heavy brioche and crusty French baguettes, all generate consumer interest. “Those are traditional products— bakers use what the traditional product is calling for,” said Fazzina. “If you’re making a French baguette, the French baguette calls for white flour. If you’re making an Italian focaccia, it calls for white flour. You want to stick to the original recipe.” Fazzina said she also sees innovation in terms of adding new ingredients and techniques to add a twist to basic white breads. While many bakers may put sourdough in a category separate from white pan bread, many sourdoughs use white flour and fall within the white bread family. “We have a lot of conversations about more elevated products,” she said. “We do see innovation taking bread one step higher in terms of the use of other ingredients like grains, seeds or creating a brioche type of product.” FORTIFICATION POWER White bread, be it the squishy pan bread or the fancy artisan variety, is perceived to lack nutritional value. Visually speaking, white bread may not appear as nutrient rich as its whole grain counterparts. It does generally fall short when it comes to dietary fibre because the wheat’s germ and bran are removed in the milling process. Still, Canadian white flour contains far more nutrients than some may think. Canada’s food and drug regulations require white flour to undergo a fortification or enrichment process that adds certain nutrients. This includes the B-vitamins thiamine, riboflavin and niacin as well as folic acid, iron and the voluntary addition of vitamin B6, d-pantothenic acid, calcium and magnesium. The process reintroduces the nutrients lost in milling and addresses public health concerns such as iron deficiency and fetal neural tube defects that can occur during pregnancy. The process is like the iodization of salt or addition of vitamin D to milk. Enriched bread—which all white bread in Canada is required to be—is often higher in iron, B vitamins and folic acid than whole grain or whole wheat bread, which do not typically undergo fortification processes. “White bread can certainly be part of a healthy diet that is based on variety and moderation. We know that the fortification process takes care of some of the micronutrient differences between white and whole grain bread,” said Alison Duncan a professor in the Department of Human Health Sciences at the University of Guelph. She noted that because white bread is typically eaten in tandem with other foods, consumers shouldn’t fret too much about the nutritional content. “White bread can also facilitate a nutrient-dense diet by the choice of foods placed between the white bread slices.” CWRS MAKES GREAT WHITE BREAD Whether bakeries around the world stick to old school white pan bread or choose to innovate, white bread production is good news for Canadian wheat farmers and flour millers. CWRS wheat accounts for 60 per cent of Canada’s wheat production and remains the gold standard for bread baking. Its versatility also makes it useful in additional wheat-based products beyond white and whole grain bread. CWRS is coveted because of its high quality. Its strong protein structure and high content—12.5 to 14.5 per cent— produce bread with a soft and springy texture, good volume and a consistent crumb. Domestically, high quality bread is enjoyed in Canada because it makes sense for millers to exclusively FEATURE “If you’re making a French baguette, the French baguette calls for white flour. If you’re making an Italian focaccia, it calls for white flour. You want to stick to the original recipe.” – Adriana Fazzina