Ardent Mills is a flour milling and ingredient company that operates in more than 40 locations across the U.S. (including Puerto Rico) and Canada. Its specialties include flour, quinoa, pulses, and organic and gluten-free products, with the goal of driving nutrition and innovation across plant-based ingredients.

To learn about consumer trends driving grains and bakery items for the coming months, Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery connected with a range of experts at the ingredients specialist:

1. Lindsey Morgan, senior director of product marketing  
2. Matthew Schueller, director of marketing insights and analytics
3. Keith Petrofsky, director of R&D, customer solutions, and product development

Jenni Spinner: Could you please tell us some of the consumer trends that are impacting the types of grains and baked products we’re seeing on the market?

Matthew Schueller: Consumers are seeking solutions that match their personal health values and preferences—this can mean functional foods, foods that taste good but also do good, sustainability, modern craft, convenience, and more. This has led to increased demand for both gluten-free and keto-friendly ingredients and increased interest in ancient grains.

Within the gluten-free bakery sphere, alternative and emerging grains are rapidly growing in popularity since they are able to help provide the taste, texture, and satisfaction of traditional bakery items, without gluten. These ingredients can do more than just take the place of gluten – they can also help provide added benefits. For example, both chickpea flour and quinoa are alternatives that can help add fiber, protein, and other vitamins and minerals, depending on the application. 

When it comes to the Keto-friendly category, new products with carb claims are being introduced into the marketplace at a remarkable rate overall—and innovation within the bakery category is among the hottest. In fact, carb-conscious products are about a $4 billion business in retail and are growing at a double-digit rate (Nielsen xAOC), and carb/keto-related is one of the fastest growing claims in Foodservice (Technomic). Further, Ardent Mills' proprietary research shows that more than one-third (39%) of Consumers (18+) currently participate in some sort of carb management behavior (low, keto-friendly, keto diet, zero net, etc.)  

All of these behaviors are projected to grow based on consumer-reported interest/plans, with keto-friendly among the fastest growth projections.  

JS: Please talk about how companies are meeting those demands with new/alternative grains and innovative baked products.

Keith Petrofsky: We continuously partner with our customers to come up with innovative ways ancient grains can become more common ingredients. Because consumers are more health conscious than ever before, they are interested in the added value ancient grains can help offer – from nutrition, sustainability, gluten-free, and more. That’s why Ardent Mills recently launched our Emerging Nutrition center of expertise that brings together ingredient experts and alternative grain specialists to work with customers to identify their specific needs. 

Many companies are responding specifically to the call for gluten-free options. Since many alternative grains and pulse ingredients are naturally gluten-free, they are growing in popularity within the plant-based and gluten-free market categories. These ingredients can be incorporated into a seemingly endless variety of applications and can help offer nutritional benefits, unique flavor, color, and textural attributes. Ardent Mills offers chickpea, quinoa, spelt, millet, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, teff, and more to help meet this demand. Ardent Mills has also met this demand by creating an easy-to-use Gluten-free 1-to-1 All Purpose Flour that helps swap out traditional flour cup for cup without sacrificing taste.

To help meet the needs of those following a Keto-friendly lifestyle, Ardent Mills created a line of Keto-certified Net Carb Flour Blends that are ideal replacements for conventional flour that do not compromise taste, functionality, or consumer preference. Our Net Carb Flour Blends are non-GMO, keto certified, dairy-free, vegan, have no-added-sugar, and are made from uniquely blended grains. What’s unique about our formulation is that it is grain-based and free of nut allergens, which helps deliver nutritional and operational advantages.

JS: Please tell us a little detail about the emerging offerings (including quinoa, chickpea, millet, and other alternatives), how they are being used, and their benefits. 

KP: Ardent Mills has a large portfolio of alternative grain offerings. A few highlights include:

• Quinoa: Ardent Mills offers North and South American quinoa in a variety of colors, including red, white, and black, and a variety of formats such as seeds, custom blends, flours, and flakes. There are many benefits to quinoa, including that it’s inherently gluten-free and non-GMO is an excellent source of folate, and is a good source of fiber, thiamine, riboflavin, iron per 45g RACC. Certain types of quinoa can also help tell a sustainability story. For example, our Colorado Quinoa program helps support local farmers and promotes water conservation, soil health, and growth. Quinoa is great used on its own, and also in many applications such as cereals, bars, crackers, pasta, and more. 
• Chickpea: Ardent Mills offers chickpeas in whole bean and flour form. Chickpeas offer many benefits including that it’s inherently gluten-free and non-GMO, are an excellent source of folate, and are a good source of fiber and thiamine per 35g RACC. It can also help tell a plant-forward sustainability story. Chickpeas are a versatile ingredient that can be used in crackers, cookies, pasta, pizza crusts, snacks, and more.
• Millet: Millet is a versatile gluten-free grain with a mild flavor that can be used whole as a topping or as an inclusion in traditional or gluten-free multigrain-style breads, buns, and rolls. As a topping, it adds a unique and satisfying crunch to breads. As a flour, it’s popular in gluten-free breads, wraps, and flatbreads. Millet is a good source of fiber, thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin per 45g RACC. Through Ardent Mills, it’s available as flour and whole seeds. It has a broad range of uses including breads, pastas, cereals, pizza crusts, cookies, snacks, and more.
• Sorghum: Ardent Mills offers sorghum in seeds, whole grain flour, and custom multigrain blends. As we’re entering the international year of millets, it’s important to note that sorghum has many similarities to millet when it comes to nutrients, dietary fiber, protein vitamins, and minerals. Sorghum’s other benefits are that it’s inherently gluten-free and non-GMO and is a good source of fiber, thiamine, and niacin per 45g RACC. Applications include cereals, breads, bars, pasta, and more.
• Buckwheat: Although many think it is a type of wheat, buckwheat is actually a pseudo-grain that is related to rhubarb. A naturally gluten-free ingredient, buckwheat is a good source of fiber, riboflavin, and niacin per 45g RACC. It’s available through Ardent Mills as flour and seeds; and can provide a flaky texture making it best suited for making pancakes and waffles, pastry crusts, cookies, and crackers.
• Spelt: Spelt is an ancient heirloom grain that is considered a distant relative of wheat commonly grown today. Cultivated by ancient civilizations both in Europe and the Middle East thousands of years ago, it can be used as an alternative to rice or oatmeal as a whole grain and as an easy replacement in many recipes that typically call for wheat flour, including muffins, waffles, breads, bagels, rolls, pizza, pasta, cookies, crackers, and more. Ardent Mills offers spelt in flour, whole kernels, custom multigrain blends, and cracked. 
• Potato Flour: We also just recently added potato flour to our product portfolio in response to high market demand for this ingredient. Our potato flour is gluten-free and helps promote tenderness, fluffy softness, and improved browning in breads.

JS: Please tell us about some of the recent and emerging trends around grains—what types of grain ingredients are we seeing (both new and increasingly popular)?

MS: Quinoa and chickpeas will remain consumer favorites; however, we anticipate the next frontier of ancient and emerging grains to include the likes of teff, amaranth, buckwheat, millet, and more.  If we look at the rate of inclusion in the bakery category, buckwheat shows the strongest growth. If we look at the impact that the ingredient has on consumer purchasing intent, quinoa, chia, oat flour, buckwheat, chickpea flour, and barley are taking the lead (Ardent Mills Proprietary Research). We anticipate this to be fueled by consumers’ growing desire for healthier or perceived healthier options, the overall eating experience, and greater diversity in their diets.   

JS: How is Ardent Mills working to stay on top of these trends? 

Lindsey Morgan: Ardent Mills takes a multi-faceted approach to staying ahead of trends and responding quickly to any market disruptions in order to best serve our customers. Our R&D strategies are powered by data and insights gained through ongoing research and by constantly listening to our customers and partners. This teamwork allows us to innovate ahead of trends and partner with our customers to meet evolving consumer needs. 

Within the last year, we launched several new products and we completed our asset acquisition of a gluten-free milling and blending facility in Harvey, ND, which brought in additional gluten-free capabilities and expertise to Ardent Mills. We also acquired certain business assets of Hinrichs Trading Company, the North American leader in chickpea sourcing, cleaning, and packaging. These acquisitions were great additions to our robust portfolio of alternative grains and allow us to be the single source for many alternative grain products. 

Additionally, we introduced new gluten-free and keto-friendly flour blends for the Canadian market, on the heels of a successful US launch in 2021: 

• Gluten-free 1:1 All-Purpose Flour: Suited for retail bakeries, wholesale bakeries, and foodservice operators, this formula can be used as a one-to-one replacement for conventional flour in most recipe applications without compromising taste, texture, or functionality.
• Gluten-free Pizza Flour Blend: This blend makes it easy for foodservice and pizza chain operators to deliver fresh, great-tasting, gluten-free crusts, including thin, flatbread, and pan pizzas—which were historically difficult to formulate for.
• Keto-Friendly Flour Blend: For bread and bakery manufacturers, Ardent Mills offers a Keto-friendly flour blend for a broad range of bread and baked goods, with the taste and texture consumers love. A proprietary functional ingredient system, this blend was formulated to achieve the right balance of dietary fibers and grains without nuts or nut flour and does contain gluten which allows customers to run on their current equipment without significant changes.
• Keto-Friendly Pizza Mix: Developed for foodservice and pizza chain operators, this easy-to-use mix was designed for simple back-of-shop operations and is suitable for most crust formats while still providing a great-tasting pizza experience with texture and crunch.

JS: Can you gaze into your crystal ball and tell us what might be on the horizon with consumer preferences and new products/ingredients?

MS: We expect consumer demand for health-forward offerings will continue to grow. Interest in a keto-friendly lifestyle continues to increase as consumers seek solutions that match their personal health values and preferences. And, since the UN named 2023 the international year of millets, we expect millets and sorghum to continue to grow and be incorporated into gluten-free trends. In fact, 70% of gluten-free eaters report an interest in buying/eating baked goods with millet as an ingredient (Ardent Mills Proprietary Research).

We’re also seeing growing interest in food safety, which comes from consumer demand for increased transparency and seeking confidence when it comes to what they are eating. More details to come when we release our survey post-Thanksgiving.

And finally, convenience is still important for consumers, especially with the chaos and disruptions we’ve seen in the last several years -- 88% of consumers say convenience is important to their eating priorities (Ardent Mills Proprietary Research). 

JS: Do you have anything to add?

MS: Ardent Mills conducted a consumer survey earlier this year which explored plant-based diet trends, understandings of alternative grains, and nutritional preferences when choosing ingredients.  

Full survey results are available here, but some highlights:

• While 96% of consumers identify wheat as a grain, awareness across other ancient grains is lacking. 
• 47% of survey respondents say plant-based eating is important to dietary/eating goals.  
• Quinoa was the grain most widely known and has the highest rate of favorable nutritional perceptions.
• While 96% of consumers are familiar with chickpeas, only 17% of consumers accurately identify chickpea as a grain. 
• Nearly 3/4 of consumers claim they are likely to eat more ancient grains over the next year.
• Over half (61%) of survey respondents say they definitely or probably would purchase an item with ancient grains from a grocer. The highest interest lies with younger generations (18-34 reporting 65%, 35-54 reporting 64%). 

We are also releasing another survey focused on food safety ahead of the holidays, which we will be sure to share with you in case it is of interest to your readers.

Another idea we are just starting to explore is the theme of “seeking the positive” that ingredients and foods bring to consumers. In other words, what does it “give” me (consumers)? Answers can range from nutrients to a good feeling about the planet, confidence, new experiences, etc. It’s certainly not a new idea but we believe it plays a key role in what’s to come. Another key thing to note is that avoidance will always be important (keto and gluten-free, for example) but the real value and connection for the consumer is in seeking the positive. Our initial research shows that 53% see seeking good things as very important while 41% avoiding (both strong numbers). SF&WB