Minimize uncertainty during harvest

Every year, environmental variations during the growing season can impact the quality and availability of traditional wheat-based flour and other ingredients. After harvest, suppliers like Ardent Mills transition production to a new crop of wheat. This new crop may perform differently, meaning bakers and manufacturers may need to adjust formulations to maximize flour performance in their products.

Maintain your flour performance and keep operations running smoothly

At Ardent Mills, our experts and resources come together in a proven process that ensures you have the right data, product performance insights, and actionable recommendations to transition your flour for effective performance, trusted quality, and ongoing consistency. Our team’s commercial bakery and manufacturing experience means we discuss baking and troubleshooting in your terms. Ready to talk with our experts?

Our new crop transition process

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Step 1: Collect samples

We survey and collect samples from farms in most growing regions across North America and send them to Ardent Mills Innovation Center.

Step 2: Mill & grade samples

We mill these early wheat survey samples and grade them based on lab analytical data and baking quality. We use common tests, including wheat test weight, wheat and flour protein, ash, enzyme and activity and dough strength.

Step 3: Survey learnings

This survey provides us with firsthand knowledge about the new crop supply and quality.

Step 4: Analyze survey discoveries

Our teams analyze any differences in flour quality or performance and consider customer implications. We may recommend a process or formula adjustment, based on the findings.

Step 5: Begin milling at our commercial mills

We received harvested new crop wheat and begin milling flour at our commercial mills.

Step 6: Partnership & collaboration

Throughout the transition process, we are committed to minimizing the new crop impact to your operations.

What makes Ardent Mills different

Ardent Mills Innovation Centers
The AMIC is our state-of–the-art technical lab that analyzes and scores the quality and performance of grains and flours — complete with small-scale milling equipment, wet chemistry and dough rheology laboratory, and a bakery.

The largest team of experts in the grain industry
Our technical, quality and experts average more than 30 years of bakery experience — from back-of-house to large scale manufacturing. This team understands how to translate milling and lab analytical data to ingredient performance. They can troubleshoot and recommend adjustments to customer formulas or operational processes.

Reliable, national footprint
The size and scale of our flour manufacturing enables us to source wheat from across North America, maximizing flour quality and consistency across our mills, and the performance you can expect.