Enriched flour

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Enriched flour is flour with specific nutrients returned to it that have been lost while it was prepared. According to the FDA, a pound of enriched flour must have the following quantities of nutrients to qualify: 2.9 milligrams of thiamin, 1.8 milligrams of riboflavin, 24 milligrams of niacin, 0.7 milligrams of folic acid, and 20 milligrams of iron. The first four nutrients are B vitamins. Calcium also may be added at a minimum of 960 milligrams per pound.

Enriching is necessary because the processing used to make white flour destroys some of these nutrients that originally were present in the whole grain. White flour became adopted in many cultures because it was recognized as being healthier than dark flours during the late Middle Ages. The unknown factor for its benefit at that time was that mold and fungus in the grains, which led to several diseases, were eliminated in the processing that resulted in white flour.

In the 1920s, Benjamin R. Jacobs began to document the loss of essential nutrients, however, through this processing of cereals and grains and to demonstrate a method by which the end products could be enriched with the lost nutrients. These nutrients promote good health and help to prevent some diseases. It is because of these benefits that enriched flour is so prevalent today, despite there being no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations requiring their use.

The international effort to start enriching flour was launched during the 1940s as a means to improve the health of the wartime populations of the British and United States while food was being rationed and alternative sources of the nutrients were scarce. The decision to choose flour for enrichment was based on its commonality in the diets of those wartime populations, ranging from the rich to the poor. A major factor in the switch to enriched flour in the United States was the U.S. Army's restriction in 1942, that it would purchase only enriched flour.

The reason that enriched flour is "enriched" as opposed to "fortified" is because the nutrients are added for the purpose of replacing those lost in the flour processing, not introducing nutrients that were never in the food originally.