Who Wants "Long Shelf Life" to be the Most Important Characteristic of Western Flour>?

[furrowtickler]

Pars - right or wrong, families today need meals within 20-30 min max. And eat out 90% more than your generation B/C of time restaints. I know , I know this is horrible , but, is what it is. No time for garden and "fresh" food. Little johny has to be at soccer or hockey within 1/2 hr and Jenny had to be at dance by 5. On top of it Mom has to work until 5 and has a meeting and Dad has to meet a client to solidify a deal by 5:30 or has a semi that has to be loadedin the yard before the rain comin in at supper time. Demands "seem" to e so extremm now, IMO.
And the only way to feed that demand is with long self life products b/c they only are able to cook 2 too three days a week max. I may be totaly off beat here, but it's my take - and my reality.

[Hopperbin]

Just curious as to what in the article indicated the process was unhealthy or
unnatural.

Like Charlie says, it sounds to me like the wheat qualities itself give better baking and shelf life, better than adding something with an E name, did I read it wrong?

[hobbyfrmr]

Furrow, I agree with your description of the new young families. It is very different from our parents. When I am getting all rammy on the kids so we can get to Karate and dance on time, I often think, my parent never behaved like this on me! Another thought popped into mind is, in our small town, I walked to the hockey rink, ball diamonds etc. Rural depopulation has ended this. Now, it takes kids from 4 towns to make one rink viable, and the parents are driving 40 minutes to a practice! Anyway, my other observation is that we can still be conscience of what we eat. Fruits, veggies etc. quick cook may not be the best, but its still fruits and veggies. Just watch a grocery store check out, I know this is biased, but the heavy folks have the cart loaded with chocolate covered chewy bars and eight cases of Pepsi/Coke. Now that I think of it, I look at the items in the cart first, then look at the people. So, yeah, its biased. There is a little room left for some white bread and jam to finish the kids' lunch. We do a lot of quick cooking and microwaving instead of a garden, but thankfully my wife pays attention and she introduced the babies to fruits and salads instead of cookies and pop. So far, it helps. The neighbors put their kids to bed with those fake fruit chewy things and a kool aid jammer. Then his wife cant figure out why her little fuzzy's baby teeth are rotten and he still wets the bed! This is not a joke, its the way we live.

[Hopperbin]

Hobby your words are right, although we don't want to believe it. Most of us, but not everyone and not my family are junkies, I tell everyone look at the bodies of people going to Subway, and then look at the difference of the people going into the Burger King, or MacDonalds. We need to correct the chips and soft drink meal for something wholesome, well some lot of people do anyways.

[wmoebis]

My grain does not grow with a "best before date". If I keep it in good storage it is good to eat fore ever. There has been grain found in ancient tombs that is still good. It has the best shelf life.

It is only after others process it and add other chemicals and additives that it goes bad. Our grain quality control system is supose to see to it that it remains that way.

IMHO I think that it is the end user and the customer that should be worried about the shelf life. I can supply good grain all year round year after year if others want to spoil that I will gladly supply more but it is going to cost them. Forebid if I could sell all my crop for 'a good price' year after year so others can eat healthy fresh food.

How can you extend the shelf life of something that will keep forever?

[furrowtickler]

wmoebis, good point.

[charliep]

Just to highlight, longer shelf life is measured in hours, not days. It is giving the products more moisture or at least ability to retain moisture for a better mouth feel to the consumer. The equivalent of zuchini cake. It is also identifying properties in grains that can be separated out and sold for higer value.

[gustgd]

In our fridge at Kinsmen we have a loaf of "Wonderbread" that just had it's second birthday with no mold on it.
Is that a good thing? I don't know, but I also don't eat wonderbread.

In my view if the grain can be selected to have better qualities for the end user all the better. It's not the grain thats making some things unhealthy it's the additives and processing.