Contact: Amanda Aranowski
 Phone: +1.651.454.7250
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AACC To Create Consumer-Friendly Whole Grain Definition 

St. Paul, Minn. (March 5, 2004) - To help consumers make informed and responsible dietary decisions, the American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC) has assembled a committee to draft a new, consumer-friendly definition of whole grain.

According to Julie Jones, chair of the AACC Grains in Health Task Force, AACC's original whole grain definition was designed for use by industry and regulatory agencies and includes words that are neither easily understood by consumers nor helps them to select whole grain foods. "Consumers need to have a guideline that will them make healthy choices," said Jones.

The AACC Grains in Health Task Force has proposed the following consumer-friendly definition of whole grain:

Whole cereal grains and foods made from them consist of the entire grain seed usually referred to as the kernel. The kernel is made of three components - the bran, the germ and the endosperm. If the kernel has been cracked, crushed or flaked, then in order to be called whole grain, it must retain nearly the same relative proportions of bran, germ and endosperm as the original grain. 

Whole grain ingredients may be used whole, cooked, milled into flour and used to make breads and other products, or extruded or flaked to make cereal products. 

AACC is currently soliciting input on the proposed definition. A special online discussion forum has been established on AACC's website at: http://interactive.aaccnet.org/source/communities/communityHomePage.cfm?CmtyId=21.

The American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC) is an international organization of 3,500 grain scientists and other professionals who study the chemistry of cereal grains and their products or work in related fields.

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