Like U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and other wheat industry organizations, the Wheat Foods Council (WFC) is funded in part directly by wheat farmers. And, like WFC, many of our milling and baking customers around the world are also supporting public campaigns to increase wheat food consumption.

USW is sharing excerpts here from a recent interview with WFC President Tim O’Connor in an episode of “Wheat’s on Your Mind,” a podcast sponsored by Kansas Wheat. Julia Debes wrote the original article for Kansas Wheat.

“We work to increase demand for the 50% of wheat that’s produced in the U.S. that’s not exported,” O’Connor said. “It stays here in this marketplace, and we have to deal with the challenges and the opportunities that the U.S. marketplace presents us.”

The WFC is an industry-wide partnership dedicated to increasing domestic wheat food consumption through nutrition information, research, education and promotional programs. The Council has a unique membership, comprised of the entire wheat value chain, including state wheat commissions supported by wheat checkoff dollars.

Above, while USW and the Wheat Foods Council focus on different customers, they have a common goal: boosting the bottom line of U.S. farmers. Both are considered valuable partners and collaborators in the U.S. wheat industry, and several state wheat associations belong to both organizations. 

“Here we have everybody from the growers, the state wheat commissions, the millers, the bakers, the ingredient suppliers, the life science companies. Everyone in the value chain can participate in the Wheat Foods Council,” O’Connor said. “Because the world looks different to a wheat grower than it does to a miller or a baker, when we can blend all of those points of view together to understand the challenges each sees, we can find a solution that’s a win-win for everyone.”

O’Connor and podcast host Aaron Harries, Kansas Wheat Vice President of Research & Operations, discussed how WFC currently has two major priorities for their work – tackling misperceptions about enriched wheat foods and leveraging influencers in the fitness and culinary sectors to reshape public perception.

Health Benefits of Enriched Flour

Enriched wheat flour is fortified with essential vitamins and minerals. This enrichment has provided major health benefits to consumers and represents most wheat foods products produced in the United States. Still, enriched wheat flour is largely misunderstood or misrepresented in nutritional information online.

“You can find thousands of articles on wonderful things about whole wheat,” O’Connor said. “But once you start looking for information on enriched wheat flour, it starts to get pretty negative very fast.”

Addressing this misperception, along with the larger challenge of combatting low-carb fad diets, requires a very strategic approach. But the WFC is trying to turn those messages around by working with groups that influence consumers: chefs and fitness professionals. Targeting these influencers offers more credibility than a seeming echo chamber of the wheat industry positively promoting their products. Plus, it is also more financially efficient because the organization can work with influencers who reach millions of people.

The first group that the Wheat Foods Council targets is [300,000] fitness professionals, including nutritionists and others who educate consumers about exercise, nutrition, weight loss, weight management and other related topics … who collectively reach several million consumers every day. The organization started by conducting surveys to better understand what information these groups gave consumers, finding that they promoted fad diets and misinformation.

Helping Chefs Incorporate Wheat Foods in Menus

In addition to fitness professionals, the Wheat Foods Council also decided to target the chefs who set the menus at major restaurant chains or work at food product companies. This includes chefs that set the menus at “industry institutional theaters” like college campuses, corporate campuses, sports venues and other places where people go every day and eat what is on the menu.

The approach to reaching these influential groups is similar … providing them with information on the nutritional value of wheat foods and how this ingredient can help meet consumer wants.

For fitness professionals, WFC conducts webinars that provide continuing educational credits, pulling in experts like Nancy Clark, an Olympian turned sports nutritionist, and Dr. Brett Carver, a wheat breeder at Oklahoma State University. For chefs and other decision-makers, the Council brings these experts to custom educational programs at places like the Culinary Institute of America. For both audiences, the Council also brings its expertise to industry conferences and provides educational material influencers can use on their social media channels.

“The food service industry feeds millions of people every day. We want them to see wheat foods as something that they want to consume, something that they value rather than buying into many of the trends that have vilified wheat foods,” said WFC President Tim O’Connor.

“We’ve had tremendous success in getting high-volume restaurant chains and high-volume food manufacturers coming to our events and going home with a whole different perspective on how to use wheat foods,” O’Connor said. “They feed millions of people every day. We want them to see wheat foods as something that they want to consume, something that they value rather than buying into many of the trends that have vilified wheat foods.”

This work requires a strategic approach and complex conversations, but at the end of the day, the Wheat Foods Council is providing simple and straightforward answers to consumer questions like: Is this good for me and my family? Do I want to serve this and eat this and feed it to my kids, or is this something I want to stay away from?

WFC President Tim O’Connor.

Each piece of education is a well-executed play from the Wheat Foods Council’s strategic playbook – driving demand for U.S. wheat and bringing a positive image of wheat back to the American dinner table. And it would not be possible without the support of the entire wheat industry, down to the individual wheat producer who pays into their state checkoff each harvest.

“This work is important to growers; it builds a more vibrant, dynamic marketplace for the wheat that they grow,” O’Connor said. “They need to know that the money they’re putting into these checkoff programs is being utilized to advance the work of the Wheat Foods Council along with the other organizations that work on international marketing and policy work on behalf of the industry.”

Listen to the full conversation with Tim O’Connor and all other episodes of the “Wheat’s on Your Mind” podcast at www.wheatsonyourmind.com.