Company: Baldor Specialty Foods

Website: www.baldorfood.com

Ingredient Snapshot: Baldor Specialty Foods, one of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic’s largest produce distributors, announced that it will begin to offer whole grain flours and polentas from the California-based whole grains producer, Community Grains. Community Grains has built significant buzz in the culinary world, by providing 100 percent traceability for its family of products. With advanced milling, it has improved the performance of whole grain foods to be competitive with refined grains—but with a boost of nutritional benefits.

“We’re excited to be the first distributor in the region to offer Community Grains as part of our line of specialty food items,” said Baldor CEO, TJ Murphy. “Our chefs and restaurant owners are going to love Community Grain’s commitment to the whole milled production process because it preserves essential nutrients and robust flavors that are typically lost during standard industrial milling.”

Using a unique 23 Points of Identity program, Community Grains has pioneered a high standard of transparency so customers can stay intimately connected to the processing of each and every one of the brand’s Identity Preserved products—from soil, harvest, storage, and milling.

“We started off 12 years ago not knowing much—but we’ve learned a lot,” said Bob Klein, president and founder of Community Grains. “We’ve learned that nutrient rich soil makes better grain, that advanced milling makes better flour, and that curious chefs and bakers can make whole grain food superior to food made from refined stuff. Transparency is at the heart of it. It’s our answer to a commodity system that degrades the land and farm communities, and makes flavorless, unhealthy food. Partnering with Baldor, a culinary leader in the Northeast, is an enormous advance for our mission to bring more flavor and real food to menus and transform how grain is understood." 

Over the next several weeks, Baldor plans to introduce Community Grains flours and polenta to its customers, with plans to offer pastas and bread products to soon follow.

“Most so-called whole wheat products only provide 10 percent of whole grains necessary to carry that label,” explains Baldor category manager specialist, Dianne Marques. “By providing authentic, whole milled grains, which go through less processing and refinement, Community Grains products may actually once again open up the world of breads and pastas to former allergy sufferers.”

Community Grains partners with independent farmers who have been using no-till, low-till, dry farming practices, crop rotations and cover cropping to create nutrient-rich soils. Many of these farms, like Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood, CA, also grow produce items for Baldor, as well.