Wheat derivatives and their by-products are many and suitable for various purposes, not only in human and feed nutrition. Let’s find out all the products that can be obtained from this cereal
Wheat is a cereal with a thousand uses, extremely versatile whose derivatives lend themselves to many different uses. Let’s see together what the main derivatives and by-products from wheat are, what they are used for and in which variants they are available.
Wheat derivates and their applications
The main wheat uses concern the production of starches, gluten and alcoholates. Let’s explore this main type of product together.
Wheat Starch
It’s a dry powder product with a very low protein content, vegetable origin, which is produced starting from the wheat flour soaking and it’s used in many areas: from the food sector, where it represents a natural thickener used mainly in bakery products, to the pharmaceutical one, up to industrial production, where it’s used as glue and whitener.
Sacchetto produces both Native Wheat Starch (also available in an organic version) and some variants that serve specific purposes in niche sectors:
- Gluten-Free Starch – indicated for the preparation of gluten-free food products
- Wheat Starch M102 – modified starch, used in the paper industry mainly as glue
Wheat Alcohol
Wheat is an excellent cereal for alcohol production: it’s obtained from the enzymatic transformation and fermentation of wheat starch and performs various functions: from the production of alcoholic beverages to anti-mold, from food preservative to disinfectant or solvent.
Its main use is certainly aimed at the production of alcoholates such as liqueurs and vodka.
Its anti-mold and preservative capacity are on the other hand exploited by the food industry which requires what we call flavored alcoholic product: a vanilla flavored wheat alcohol. This product is obtained by mixing wheat ethyl alcohol with 100% natural vanilla flavor (use free of excise duty), used for baked goods treatment and storage.
Regarding solvents or disinfectants field, a specific product is used, the heads and tails alcohol, which Sacchetto produces through a fractional distillation process from mother cider. Here’s where the heads and tails are separated from the rest of ethyl alcohol, intended as solvent in chemical sector and disinfectant in household and industrial cleaning products.
Wheat gluten.
Lastly, just as it is possible to remove gluten from wheat starch, in the same way it’s possible to extract gluten only contained in this cereal. Vital wheat gluten finds application in the food sector as an ingredient for bread making, for the production of high-quality baked goods and as an improver of soft wheat flour.
Wheat by-products
Flour and bran are just two of the numerous derivatives that can be obtained from wheat processing: this process requires not only grinding, but also many mechanical washing, fermentation, distillation, centrifugation, and drying processes.
The best known products are undoubtedly those derived from the grinding of wheat grain, the ones that derives from the production of flour: bran and wheat middling are the “waste” products immediately preceding the flour refining, and are well known as used in nutrition with a high protein content in the livestock industry.
Alongside these products, feeds and supplements, we also find other derivatives of wheat for feed use, such as wheat distiller: an insoluble dry by-product, with a high protein content and a considerable amount of vitamins. It’s used as protein supplement and bacterial flora stimulant, especially in bulls and calves nutrition.
The wheat protein concentrate on the other hand, it’s a liquid supplement rich in yeasts, and suitable for feeding all ruminants.
