Thoughts on our – back to basics.

AN ITALIAN TRADITION

“In Italy, the fl our mills produce diff erent types of fl ours for diff erent types of users and applications – bakers, pizza chefs etc – according to the way the wheat is ground,” says Marco Fuso. “For example, a bread baker will need bread fl ours to suit the type of products they’re going to make, and within the bread lines of fl ours off ered by a fl our mill there will be diff erent types to choose from. The same applies to pizza… For example, a fl our mill may off er four or fi ve diff erent lines for pizza making, and it will depend on the pizza making and dough-making techniques, and proving times, what type of fl our will be required for the pizza to be served. “In Italy, the fl our mills give an opportunity to the operators to choose the best fl ours based on the products they want to off er in their restaurants, and in turn this depends on the proving time the operator wants to prove the pizza dough for before it becomes pizza. This is vital - for each restaurant

Thoughts

on fl our

With fl our being a vital ingredient to the very nature of pizza and Italian breads, but now increasingly experiencing price and supply chain pressure, pizza chef, industry consultant and PAPA Awards judge, Marco Fuso (pictured), shares his views.

to create its own signature dough through the proving time - because this means flavour and digestibility, and having a better, lighter type of pizza base. “In Italy, when each flour mill receives the wheat, they do several tests, including finding out how rich in protein content it is, and establishing which fermentation process the flour will be able to support once it becomes pizza dough. At this point, each flour type has different characteristics, and you can choose weak, medium and strong types or ‘too strong’ flour (sometimes called super-strong), depending on what you want to create. For instance, breads and pizza can be made easily with medium and strong flour.

“The weak, medium, strong and super-strong flours are invariably assigned a W number rating. The lower the number, the lower, or the weaker quality. Weak flour can typically be proved for between four and 12 hours, medium from 12 to 24. Stronger flour better suits a longer fermentation processes - 48/72 hours - that weak or medium will not. It is important for operators to understand the W denomination and which type of flour they are using, depending on the proving method they want to use.”

BLENDS

Usually, pizza and bread are made with medium strength, medium quality flour, advises Marco Fuso, whereas for products such as Roman focaccia, high protein content flour is required, so a stronger flour is required. Super-strong flour is often known as ‘Manitoba flour’, due to the type of wheat used to make it, and the fact that it comes from the Manitoba region in Canada, known throughout the world as a source of very rich, high protein content wheat. “Usually, you could be able to use one flour to make several things – pizza, bread etc – but some products

Wheat prices hit record highs

The Ukraine-Russia conflict is expected to impact food sectors such as bakery and cereals severely in the coming months, reports data and analytics company, GlobalData, who explain that prior to the conflict, the global bakery and cereal sector was forecast to grow from $625.8 billion in 2020 to $792.9 billion in 2025, representing an overall gain of $167.1 billion over the fiveyear period. However, given Russia and Ukraine’s positions as major grain producers, this conflict presents a major disruption to global supply and the sector’s growth. Amira Freyer-Elgendy, food & drink associate analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Ukraine is a producer of wheat, maize, barley, rye, potatoes, and buckwheat and together with Russia, it supplies a sizeable chunk of the global wheat market. China, Italy and Spain – which are key markets for the global bakery and cereal – are some of the country’s top export destinations and so the global landscape of the segment may dramatically shift. Regions in MENA will be especially hard hit and are likely feel the impact of price rises the most.” The categories that these price hikes will affect the most are morning goods, bread and rolls, and dough products, such as pizza bases and pastry shells, both in foodservice and retail. These products are considered everyday essentials and the associated costs of finding new suppliers or in managing the slowly draining resource will likely be offloaded onto the consumer by increasing prices. Affected countries may be able to offer subsidies and have rations that will be a buffer, but ultimately higher costs will add further pressure to the 59% of shoppers who are extremely or quite concerned about their personal finances (according to GlobalData 2021 Q4 global consumer survey, sample size of 21,000 respondents). “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and its own high export tax as the world’s largest exporter of wheat, threatens the sector. The repercussions of this are going to be varied: from social unrest and food insecurity to rising demand for exported wheat or maize in other regions and, of course, the massive hike in prices that we are already seeing,” Amira Freyer-Elgendy added. Australia has emerged as a potential supplier to the Middle East, due to seeing an especially bountiful harvest this year after a year of above-average rainfall. However, small independents may struggle as they do not have the economy of scale to keep up with the cost to switch over to a new supplier.

“The timing is unfortunate, coming off the back of the pandemic-fuelled supply chain issues, poor wheat harvests in Russia and price hikes. With Covid 19 and the Russian conflict causing key issues for international shipments, a push for local products is expected. Many governments may look to invest in their local production to reduce reliance on the global market in the long-term or enter new trade agreements with countries that produce alternative grains such as corn. However, this will do little to resolve the immediate shortages,” Amira FreyerElgendy concluded.

Strong fl our focus

“It is essential to use a strong fl our for speciality Italian breads like focaccia, ciabatta, and panini. When the bread dough is mixed and proving, and yeast is added the dough expands creating pockets and bubbles of air. A strong fl our is needed with a high gluten content and in this environment the bubbles will just grow bigger and bigger creating that fantastic texture with large bubbles. You need a protein content of 12/13.5% or more. You must use a strong fl our to enable this process and you must allow suffi cient time to prove,” advises says Jason Bull, director of Eurostar Commodities.

“Our Eurostar Rinforzato Italian Strong ‘00’ Flour and Eurostar Strong Yellow ‘00’ Italian Flour have been developed as high quality, strong fl ours to create fantastic results in speciality Italian breads.”

Eurostar Rinforzato Italian Strong ‘00’ Flour is a premium Italian fl our, Eurostar “OO” Rinforzato with a protein level of 13% and high extensibility; it is very versatile and gives reliably excellent volume. Also ideal for use in high-end pizza, it’s suitable for the sourdough/Italian ‘BIGA’ method, say the company, as well as direct mixing methods with 10-12 hours fermentation and has W value of 300, say the company. Eurostar Strong Yellow ‘00’ Italian Flour is versatile, very high strength 00 Italian fl our, widely used to make noodles, dumplings, and Dim sum, as well as bread, pizza and panettone, say Eurostar, making a strong dough with high water absorption and yield and withstanding fermentation times of between 15 and 18 hours. It can also be used for sourdough and off ers a typical Mediterranean fl avour. will always require a stronger fl our. It also depends on the knowledge and skills – ‘craft’ - that you might have access to in your business, as well as consumer knowledge and appreciation of various types of products and how they should be and taste. In the UK, not as many are using a variety of fl ours as they are in Italy, but it is changing,” Marco Fuso adds. “Not many suppliers use one type of fl our in their products these days, but rather blends of diff erent wheats from diff erent countries in order to be able to off er diff erent characteristics. This is how many fl our suppliers can now off er a range of fl our products with diff erent properties that can meet the baking requirements of restaurants and operators.” In referencing the potential of a sustainable, home-grown, fl our sourced from British wheat, to make Neapolitan style pizza, Marco Fuso feels that currently British wheat alone is not strong enough as the Italian fl our in order to be able to replicate what Italian blended fl ours do. One option is to blend British wheat with Manitoba to compensate, but right now, the price of Manitoba wheat is very high, making such an ambition not necessarily viable in the prevailing economic conditions. What might on the face of it otherwise seem like a potentially very cost-eff ective option is not necessarily so for another reason, however - labour costs also being higher in UK than Italy, he points out. As you might expect, Italy itself has plenty of fl our mills, as opposed to being known for a vast amount of wheat crops. However, it does have its own, home-grown type of wheat called Bologna, says Marco Fuso, which is very strong in its characteristics, and therefore popular in the home market, also attracting a price premium – sometimes being even more expensive than the Canadian wheat itself. At the same time, Italy is one of the biggest importers of wheat, and not necessarily for home consumption, but rather to be used in the blending of fl ours for export, in turn indicating the strong knowledge and experience Italian millers have amassed when it comes to creating fl ours of consistent quality and performance (in light of the impact of global crop fl uctuations and weather issues, for example). It is these skills and experience, relied upon by small operators and much bigger businesses alike, feels Marco Fuso, that are not always replicated elsewhere, and that make the Italian millers masters, evidenced by the fact that Italian fl our is the most used around the world when it comes to making pizza.

RISING PRICES

“All Italian food importers are struggling right now to get stock from Italy, with ingredients prices rising every single month. Prices are volatile, creating inconsistency… Flour has risen in price by 30% in six months, some pasta similarly. Some of the prices from the big suppliers were still acceptable because they are buying in huge quantities when they have contracts, but very recently we have seen more signifi cant price increases,” Marco Fuso reports. “It can be diffi cult to just get produce. Things were stable until the confl ict in Ukraine, but when that happened, prices went crazy, and just when we were starting to recover from what had gone before. If they have space available in their restaurant, people have tried to stock up on fl our, but for small businesses it’s very diffi cult. What do they do? They have no room. This can lead to problems with consistency of product if they start to source from elsewhere.”

Looking ahead to this year’s wheat harvest, having visited Italy in recent weeks, Marco Fuso reports that there is concern there that it has not rained enough for the wheat crops, and that the growth is behind, that the plants are still small, potentially leading to a lower percentage crop yield. With many African nations and countries in the Middle East thought to rely more heavily for wheat sourced from the Ukraine in particular, it remains to be seen what will transpire for an increasingly under pressure food commodity.

PIZZA ITALIANA

Made from 100% Italian Wheat this ‘0’ flour creates fragrant, tasty, and easily digestible pizza base, perfect for all types of pizza.

PIZZA DORATA

A strong high protein flour produces a tall, soft, delicious crust. Ideal for Neapolitan thin crust pizzas.

PIZZA VERACE

High protein ‘00’ flour, perfect for the authentic classic Neapolitan pizza. Creates an easily digestible, crunchy pizza base, with the allimportant golden crust.

PIZZA AI CEREALI

High quality soft wheat flour made from specially selected cereals which creates a balanced, light in colour tasty pizza base.

PIZZA PROTEICA

High quality product made from a mixture of legume and cereal flours. The pea proteins within this flour are responsible for offering the intense flavour and crunchy crust.