I've sent an email RFI to ConAgra requesting information regarding the origins of Ultragrain wheat. Be it hybrid, or be it GMO?
Unable to discern that info from their very pretty website. http://www.ultragrain.com/index.jsp (Note: The moniker "Natural" doesn't indicate GMO or not)
If it's GMO... it will go a long way to fulfilling Adbuster's prophesy that children will be the guinea pigs for GMO food products.
Leigh www.leighm.net
Omaha World-Herald courtesy of Rednova:
ConAgra's Ultragrain Appears in Foods at Omaha, Neb., Schools http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=191619&source=r_science
Jul. 29--Kids returning to school this fall in Omaha and other public school districts across the country can gobble their pizzas and get more whole grain goodness at the same time.
ConAgra Foods is offering cheese and pepperoni pizzas called the Max, with crusts of enriched white flour and more than 50 percent Ultragrain, the company's whole grain flour designed to combine the nutrition and fiber of whole wheat with the texture and taste of milder, sweeter white flour.
"We tried it in a couple of our schools and the kids loved it," said Tammy Yarmon, director of nutrition services at Omaha Public Schools. "They couldn't tell the difference" from the enriched white flour crust they had been accustomed to, she said.
The Max cheese and pepperoni pizzas were served at a couple of schools in May and will be on the menu this fall at all Omaha Public Schools, Yarmon said. They will be advertised to the children as whole grain as well, emphasizing the nutritional value, Yarmon said.
ConAgra also is offering schools beef, cheese and bean burritos with more than 50 percent Ultragrain in the tortillas, under the trademark El eXtremo.
Bellevue and Lincoln public schools will also be offering pizzas with the Ultragrain flour. The Omaha schools will consider adding the burritos next school year, Yarmon said.
Nationwide, nearly 2,600 of the country's 14,000 school districts have signed up to offer one or both of the pizza and burrito meals this fall, ConAgra spokesman Garth Neuffer said.
"We're always looking to add nutritious items to our menu, to help kids do their best," said Lyn Kirkland, nutrition education coordinator at Gwinnett County Schools in Georgia, which ranks 20th among U.S. school districts in size. "But meals need to taste good or they won't be eaten. These new meals fulfill that need, giving us the best of both worlds."
Each slice of pizza offers the nutritional benefits of whole grain, including antioxidants, phytonutrients, minerals and vitamins, as well as 3 grams to 5 grams of fiber. Each burrito packs similar vitamin and mineral benefits with more than 7 grams of fiber.
ConAgra commissioned a taste study of the products. In tests conducted from February through April, the University of Minnesota found that children in grades one through six at Eisenhower Elementary School in Hopkins, Minn., ate pizzas with the same gusto whether the crust was made solely with traditional white flour or with white flour and more than 50 percent Ultragrain.
Fajita wraps and bread sticks made with Ultragrain met similar acceptance, the study found.
ConAgra unveiled its Ultragrain last August, after spending five years and millions of dollars developing a sweeter, hard white winter wheat used for the flour, as well as special milling equipment that grinds the grain to a particle size comparable to refined flour.
The pizzas and burritos are the first ConAgra food-service products made with Ultragrain.
Other companies also are using the flour, including Sara Lee, with its Soft & Smooth Made with Whole Grain White Bread, which hit store shelves earlier this month.
"The Ultragrain is really what makes this work," said Sara Lee spokesman Matt Hall. "You can talk about whole grains until you're blue in the face, but they (consumers) like white bread."
Whole grain bread sales have increased over the past few years, but of the 5 billion pounds of packaged fresh bread sold in the past year, 47 percent was white bread, Hall said.
Sara Lee's bread uses 70 percent enriched white flour and 30 percent whole grain flour, most of it Ultragrain, Hall said. Sara Lee tested bread with 100 percent Ultragrain, but the color and taste were not what traditional white bread eaters wanted, Hall said.
"So we started dialing back on that," Hall said. "Getting close is certainly better than nothing."
The "Soft & Smooth" bread may be a good transition as people increasingly turn to whole grains, prompted in part by the federal government, which in January issued new dietary guidelines, including recommendations that people eat more whole grains.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recommended more whole grains and could issue new rules for school meals next year, ConAgra and school officials said. Whole grain pizzas and burritos help meet a federal push for more whole grains on school menus, they said.
"It would go a long way toward helping us meet the nutritional needs of our children," Yarmon said.
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