Food Forum - Wright's_Bread

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About the company

Wright's have been milling flour since 1867 and are now London's only independent, privately owned, family mill. There has been a working mill on the Wright's site since over 900 years ago. Today the company is run by the founder, George Wright's great, great grandson, David Wright.

The transformation of Ponders End Mills into a modern food factory began in 1963 and numerous innovations and improvements have been made since then.

Wright's mill looks much the same today on the outside as it did in the 16th and 17th centuries. However, behind the historic buildings, is a modern food factory operating to up-to-date standards of quality and hygiene.

In 1867, 1000 tonnes of flour was produced per year. Now this amount can be produced in less than one week.

Wright's main philosophy is that to make the best products you must begin with the best quality raw materials and make the most of modern technological methods.

Wright's developed the first commercially successful range of speciality bread mixes in the UK. The company is proud of its traditions, but also invests in innovative manufacturing systems and techniques, product testing and development. This helps them to meet customers' needs.

The mill was one of the first in England to install the continental roller-mill system, although the original millstones were kept to stonegrind the company's speciality product, Imperial Wholemeal flour.

Wright's pioneered the introduction of electricity to replace water-power in the early twentieth century and adopted the latest ideas in commercial transport, such as steam-powered "horseless carriages".

During the Great Depression of the 1920's times were hard and many mills had to close. Wright's survived this period by investing for better times.

About the product


Mixed grain	Naan	White

Wright's produces a wide variety of flours and bread mixes. Their speciality bread mixes include breads of the world, egs. Naan and Ciabatta, as well as traditional breads from the UK, such as Scofa bread from Scotland.

The most popular mixes are produced in bulk, in sacks and also in retail-size packs stocked by the leading supermarkets.

About the design and development process

The on-site laboratory and test bakery at Wright's is used for testing and trialling the different flours and bread mixes that are produced by the company.

It is also used to carry out design and development work. For example when the Naan bread mix was being developed trials were carried out on different recipes and leavening agents (ingredients used to make the bread rise) until the right balance of ingredients was decided.

The product design team visited an Indian restaurant to watch Naan breads being made by the experts. This gave first hand knowledge of the product being developed. In addition, existing Naan breads were bought and compared through sensory evaluation to investigate their
secrets of success.

Samples of the product were also given to members of staff to take home and try.

Their feedback was part of the development process. Once the recipe was finalised the packaging and on-pack information was designed.

This includes ingredients listing and nutritional infomation. The shelf-life of a Wright's packet mix is six months from the date it was made.

Several specialist pieces of equipment are used in the laboratory as part of quality testing at the mill.

Equipment	What it does
Automatic probe	raw ingredients are monitored and checked on arrival
Farinograph	measures water absorption, strength and stability of the dough during the mixing process
Extensograph	measures the ability and resistance of a dough to stretching
Sedimentation	measures the quality of gluten (an insoluble protein flour that becomes rubbery when mixed with water) in flour and wheat - an important quality measure for baking performance
Flour colour grade	measures the whiteness of the flour

About the manufacture

What happens in the flour mill?

There are two main stages - click on the links below to find out about:

the primary processing of wheat into flour

the secondary processing of flour into products

About the consumer
Once the bread mixes have been manufactured and distributed to the shops, it is down to the consumer to make the mixes into bread. This can be done by hand using a few basic pieces of kitchen equipment, egs. bowls, measuring jug, baking tray or loaf tins and hands for kneading!

Alternatively, the process can be aided with a bread-making machine. This is a piece of small-scale domestic equipment that is similar to the industrial processes used to make bread on a much larger scale in factories. It helps by speeding up the process and controlling the proving and baking stages of manufacture.

About the marketing

Wright's customers fall into two main groups:

bakers who use Wright's flours
retailers who sell them to consumers

The bakers that use Wright's as a supplier range from small craft or independent bakers to in-store bakery operations, plant bakeries and biscuit manufacturers.

The retailers include small shops, multiple retailers and supermarkets who sell Wright's pre-packed flours and bread mixes. These may be sold under the Wright's label or a supermarket's own brand.

Wright's sales professionals visit customers regularly to discuss and advise on devleopments with the products and ways in which they may be marketed.

From time to time, Wright's use celebrities who are well know to the general public to promote their products and encourage people to bake bread at home. For example, Ainsley Harriot popped in to lend his support to National Bread Making Week.

Wright's also run a Home Baking Club where people
can share recipes and ideas
for using the bread mixes.

For more information email: homebaking@wrightsflour.co.uk providing your name and address.

About issues and values

Wright's uses modern technology to develop innovative
products and improve on traditional favourites. The company
uses feedback from customers to improve the product range
and quality.

Wright's also respond to customer issues and concerns,
eg. those about genetically modified soya. Most of the
bread improvers in the UK contain some sort of soya
based ingredient, so finding an effective replacement was important. When soya crops imported from the USA could
not be guaranteed to be from non-genetically modified
soya, Wright's developed an effective non-soya alternative.
All wheat milled for flour at Wright's is free from genetic modification. In addition, Wright's have assurances that their suppliers use non-GM ingredients.

Producing and sharing food with friends and family is an important social occasion in all cultures around the world. But although food has an important role to play, this role shifts and changes depending on what is important to a culture or society at any point in time.

As UK society has changed, less food may be home produced. For example, we may buy more ready-prepared and take-away foods because of their convenience. Wright's is keen to encourage use of its mixes and home baking generally. It encourages consumers (including schools) to experiment with its mixes, to try out their own ideas - to be creative and innovative. Wright's believe that the tradition of making, baking and eating your own bread is enjoyable and worthwhile.

Making use of the case study - things to think about and do
Using this case study for the following tasks will help to develop your understanding about:

the properties of wheat and flour
industrial practices - primary and secondary processing
new product development - extending a product range
values issues - the social and cultural value of food

Explore the processing of wheat into flour and flour into bread mixes using the Wright's flow chart. Produce your own flow diagram, or Powerpoint presentation, to summarise these primary and secondary production processes.

Go to the Wright's Homebaking pages and try out some of the recipe ideas you find there. Carry out sensory tests as a group or class and decide which recipe ideas work well and which could be improved.
Develop your own ideas for using or improving a bread mix of your choice. Develop your ideas with a particular person, or market sector in mind. For example, if it is a person it may be a friend or relative, a celebrity or a character in a book, eg. a Harry Potter bread. If it is for a particular market sector it may be for children, vegetarians or ethnic group, egs. Italian, Greek or Asian. Whoever you choose, you will need to do some research into what type of bread they would like.
Bread is usually eaten with other foods as part of a snack or meal. It may be savoury or sweet. Find out about as many different uses of bread as you can. Produce a class display or presentation of everyone's findings.
Conduct a class survey of people's bread preferences - which are the favourite ways of eating bread?
Develop and trial your own ideas for new ways with bread - either a snack food or meal. Make and evaluate your ideas.
Carry out a nutritional analysis of your made product. What other foods might you erve with the product to make it a well balanced snack or meal.
How does the cost of using a bread mix compare with making a similar bread from scratch? Analyse and comment on your findings.
If you have access to a bread-making machine (at home or school) try making bread with this. Explain, by use of diagrams, how the process of making bread is controlled (if you have access to a camera, you can include images of the process).
Develop your own specification for a bread mix. Test and trial your ideas. How would the ingredients in your specification be processed if they were made into a mix in a factory like Wright's? Use a computer to design the packaging and labelling information that would appear on your mix.

Produce a series of diagrams that show a comparison between the large-scale manufacturing process of bread making and a similar product made by hand on a small scale. Include safety and quality checks for both.
Explain how the properties of the ingredients used for bread making contribute to the qualities of the end product, egs. a spongy, risen structure.

Food plays an important role in most societies and cultures, but this shifts changes depending on what is important to a culture or society at any point in time. Find out about people's current views about home baking. What are the issues? Explain and justify your own views.

Further useful resources
'Design & Make it: Food Technology', Stanley Thornes, 1997, p20-35
'Design & Make it: Food Technology for KS3', Stanley Thornes, 1999, p62-67
'D&T Challenges: Blue Book', RCA, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997, p6-13
'Food Technology in Practice', DATA, 1996, p48-53
'Food Technology to GCSE', Anita Tull, Oxford University Press, 1998, p18-19, p34-35
'Food Technology' Unit, British Nutrition Foundation, 1998, MAFF
'Examining Food Technology', Anne Barnett, Heinemann, 1996, p5, p44-51
'Food Technology', Collins Real World Technology series, Inglis, Plews & Chapman, p36-45, p129-135
'The Science & Technology of Food', RK Proudlove, Forbes, 1994, p154-161
http://www.wrightsflour.co.uk
http://www.bakersfederation.org.uk
http://www.fabflour.co.uk
http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/education/tasteofsuccess/Default.htm