Re: Whole Grain Breads - Was: Vitamins May Avert ...............

[Guest guest]

> Rodney typed:

> > Or perhaps it could humbly be suggested that consumers buy whole

> > grain products.

>

> If they're available at all! It does no good to suggest to

consumers that

> they buy something that isn't even available to them.

Whole wheat bread is available almost everywhere and not many people

buy it. All successful companies spend huge amounts of money trying

to find new or better products that will give them a leg up compared

with the competition. They have to do this or they will be left

behind. They try all kinds of new products, healthier ones and all

kinds of others. Yet 95% of all new product introductions, including

those of the major companies, are failures, because the public

doesn't buy them, despite all kinds of promotions to alert consumers

to their existence. (As an example, Quaker Oats recently distributed

free samples of new products throughout this neighbourhood, then a

couple of weeks later sent coupons for those products so you could

get them for half price. They included relatively healthy oatmeal as

the principal ingredient. But it is unlikely they will ever achieve

profitability. It is difficult to get consumers to change their

ways.)

> At any of my three nearest supermarkets, in the metropolis of

Silicon

> Valley, I can't find a single loaf of " Whole Wheat " bread that

doesn't

> have " unbleached wheat flour " (IOW, white flour) as the first

ingredient,

> and " high-fructose corn syrup " as the third or fourth ingredient.

We have discussed this here recently. If white flour is so awful you

should not be eating ANY bread. 'Pure' whole grain bread by

definition contains more than 80% white flour because the seed is

80+% endosperm, which is what white bread is made of. Whole grain is

called whole grain because it contains the WHOLE grain, the

overwhelming majority of which is the white flour part of the grain.

> To buy " real " bread, I drive 16 miles to a Whole Foods store in a

> neighboring suburb. Several small-bakery breads available there

actually

> are made with only the basic four or five necessary ingredients.

(Even

> there, about half of the breads on their shelves are still " white "

bread.)

BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT PEOPLE OVERWHELMINGLY BUY! Not many people buy

whole wheat bread. If they did the shelves would be full of it.

> Otherwise, when I get time, I make my own in a bread machine.

>

> > The bread companies produce the stuff that people buy in the

stores.

> People buy what's available.

Whole grain bread is available in almost all stores, and only a small

minority buy it because the majority don't want it. Blame the

consumers.

Almost half of the bread on the shelves on my

> local Safeway is labeled " wheat " or " 100% Wheat " or " Whole Wheat " .

None of

> it fits my definition of a whole grain bread.

>

> > The supermarkets would be very dumb to stock anything else.

They would

> > be left with shelves full of unsold product.

>

> I think there's a more sinister thing going on. On anecdote to my

point:

> When I worked as the assistant manager of a college cafeteria in

the late

> 1970's, the food service supply salesmen would push products to us

based

> on shelf-life, price, consistency of manufacturing, convenient

packaging,

> and perhaps taste if it was an " upscale " or " gourmet " product. They

had a

> whole line of breads that were designed to stack with maximum

density on a

> certain wheeled cart they sold! Never was there any discussion about

> nutrition.

Because most consumers don't give a damn about nutrition as evidenced

by pretty much any health statistic you want to look at these days -

obesity/diabetes/heart disease/etc. We all know that. Most want to

sit on the couch eating potato chips and drinking beer while they

watch the soaps. And cost is a major issue. If you want (as you

seem to, based on what you say above) preservative-free (shelf life

issues); unpopular (small demand with similar fixed costs); with more

expensive packaging; that take up much more space on the shelves (one

of the key issues in supermarket profitability/viability); and you

want it at a cheap price? Well if it costs a lot more the price will

be a lot higher, and that is another major reason why people will not

buy the stuff.

We had to buy large quantities of the stuff to even see it

> closely enough to read the ingredients label or the nutritional

> information.

>

> Could it be that buyers for supermarket chains are selecting

products

> based on similar criteria?

One of the absolutely key principals of supermarket management is to

buy the stuff THAT PROVIDES THE GREATEST SALES PER SQUARE FOOT OF

SHELF SPACE, and allocate shelf space to products accordingly. The

amount of shelf space allocated to whole grain breads is a very close

function of how much is bought. If a supermarket didn't do this and

its local competitors did, they would very soon be broke. The

average net profit of a supermarket chain is 2% - YES TWO PERCENT -

of sales.

>

> > Indeed any bread (or any other for that matter) company that

produces

> > anything different from what people demonstrate by their actions

they

> > want to buy, would quickly go broke.

> >

> > (Just attributing responsibility for the products that are

available in

> > the stores where it really ought to be attributed - to

consumers. Like

> > you and me.)

>

> Though there is certainly a element of consumer ignorance or

education

> here, a thoughtful well-meaning consumer might not bother to buy the

> health-promoting items simply because, unlike me, they don't want

to drive

> a dozen or more miles to a neighboring community to shop at a

specialty

> store that sells all of those weird health-foods. Or they don't

have or

> know of such a store in their area.

The idea that here is a wonderful product that everyone would buy if

only it were available makes no sense in a highly competitive

industry like food retailing, especially when existing comparable

products (like present whole wheat breads) are enormously outsold by

white breads), and where any bakery (who you believe if only they had

the 'smarts' to offer 'proper' whole grain breads) could 'clean up'

against the competition. The supermarkets would be falling all over

themselves to get bread from that bakery if what you say is true -

that the supermarket could increase its sales at the expense of the

competing stores.

Rodney.

Steve: Please respond if you wish, but after that let's take it to

email as it is getting a bit OT!

[Guest guest]

One exception, I think, is that food in general has to SURVIVE packaging, shipment, shelf life, spoilage. Ground wheat kernel bread is not suitable for making and distributing. I make it and store it in frig or freezer. With the germ in, it's the only way to keep it. The other thing of course is that some people think the whole wheat gluten is not sufficient for making bread, without adding white flour or gluten. They don't want to change their millions of investment in machinery/process.

A good example of this is Nabisco will not switch from hydrog fat to oil in Oreos, yet Neuman makes an "Oreo" without hydrog fat.

Regards.

----- Original Message -----

From: Rodney

Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 7:03 PM

Subject: [ ] Re: Whole Grain Breads - Was: Vitamins May Avert ...............

BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT PEOPLE OVERWHELMINGLY BUY! Not many people buy whole wheat bread. If they did the shelves would be full of it. Rodney.