Developing a Standard Definition of Whole-Grain Foods for Dietary Recommendations: Summary Report of a Multidisciplinary Expert Roundtable Discussion

Abstract

Although the term “whole grain” is well defined, there has been no universal standard of what constitutes a “whole-grain food,” creating challenges for researchers, the food industry, regulatory authorities, and consumers around the world. As part of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Technical Advisory Committee issued a call to action to develop definitions for whole-grain foods that could be universally accepted and applied to dietary recommendations and planning. The Committee’s call to action, and the lack of a global whole-grain food definition, was the impetus for the Whole Grain Roundtable held 3–5 December 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. The objective was to develop a whole-grain food definition that is consistent with the quartet of needs of science, food product formulation, consumer behavior, and label education. The roundtable’s expert panel represented a broad range of expertise from the United States and Europe, including epidemiology and dietary intervention researchers, consumer educators, government policy makers, and food and nutrition scientists from academia and the grain food industry. Taking into account the totality, quality, and consistency of available scientific evidence, the expert panel recommended that 8 g of whole grain/30 g serving (27 g/100 g), without a fiber requirement, be considered a minimum content of whole grains that is nutritionally meaningful and that a food providing at least 8 g of whole grains/30-g serving be defined as a whole-grain food. Having an established whole-grain food definition will encourage manufacturers to produce foods with meaningful amounts of whole grain, allow consistent product labeling and messaging, and empower consumers to readily identify whole-grain foods and achieve whole-grain dietary recommendations.

Whole-grain foods and chronic disease: evidence from epidemiological and intervention studies

“…The findings from these studies have been less consistent in reporting a positive impact of WG on health outcomes than those in population-based studies. Ferruzzi et al (8) noted that part of the inconsistency may be a result of different study design and incorporation of different types of WG foods within the intervention diet regimen. In addition, methods for reporting and calculating WG intake vary considerably between studies making interpretation of results and comparison between studies even more difficult (18) .…”

“…The definition of WG proposes that the grains may be processed in a variety of ways which ensures that the natural proportions of bran, germ and endosperm are retained. Crucially, and in contrast to the updated AACCI definition (8) , this definition also allows for a minimal loss of these three components during the processing of these WG foods (9) . Similar issues in the standardisation of a definition for WG foods have also become apparent.…”

“…A number of definitions agree that WG foods should contain over half their weight from WG sources. The disagreements come in relation to whether this should be expressed as the dry content of the product, or whether it should be based on ingredient declarations (8) . Such definitions may exclude products with a naturally high water content (e.g.…”

“…As a result of these findings, specific target on daily WG intakes have been recommended in the USA and in Denmark. Many other countries have less specific recommendations such as 'eating more whole grain' or 'choose WG whenever possible (8) . It must be noted that WG vary greatly based on the chemical composition of different grain species (20) .…”

“…A more recent and practicable definition was proposed based on the amount by weight that a portion of WG food might provide. The definition was proposed by an international cross-disciplinary group which suggested that the lowest amount a WG food product must contain was 8 g WG per 30 g product (8) in order to be labelled as a 'whole-grain food'. By making the recommendation in this way the panel aimed to provide WG food manufacturers with a target amount of WG within their products which was nutritionally meaningful.…”