“Bay State Milling Launches Flourish: A High-Fiber All-Purpose Flour for Health-Conscious Holiday Baking”
As the holiday baking season approaches, with people preparing cookies, cakes, gingerbread, and other festive treats, Bay State Milling has introduced an innovative product that adds a functional twist: fiber. Last month, the company unveiled Flourish, a high-fiber, all-purpose flour designed specifically for consumers. While Bay State Milling primarily operates in the B2B sector, creating grain ingredients for manufacturers, Flourish represents a shift towards the consumer market.
This new flour is made from high-amylose wheat, a fiber-rich variety that Bay State Milling uniquely cultivates in North America. According to the company, Flourish performs and tastes very much like standard all-purpose flour but boasts five times the fiber content. Jillian Wishman, the strategic marketing manager at Bay State Milling, highlighted the family-owned company’s mission to provide healthy and affordable grain options. With only 5% of Americans meeting their recommended fiber intake, she emphasized the opportunity to launch a flour that helps consumers boost their consumption. Additionally, the fiber in Flourish is prebiotic, promoting better gut health.
“The current consumer trends indicate that now is an ideal time to introduce a health-conscious all-purpose flour,” Wishman stated, noting the growing focus on personal nutrition and immunity, along with a resurgence in baking, particularly as the holidays draw near. “All these factors aligned perfectly to allow us to offer something to consumers for the first time, rather than just our usual business partners.”
While Flourish is a new product, it is essentially a consumer-friendly blend of popular Bay State Milling products used by manufacturers. The company utilizes high-amylose wheat to produce its HealthSense flour, which is sold to corporate clients. For Flourish, they combine HealthSense with standard flour to ensure familiarity for consumers. Matthew Jacobs, the company’s director of strategic marketing, explained that the branding and marketing campaign for Flourish were also designed to enhance the product’s accessibility. HealthSense is already widely adopted by manufacturers and is found in a variety of products, from pizza to pasta to tortillas.
Flourish is exclusively available on Amazon, where it quickly became one of the top new products in its category after launch. Wishman noted that it addresses several current consumer needs. According to data shared by Bay State Milling, 77% of consumers plan to bake more this holiday season, many of whom are at home due to the pandemic. Furthermore, with a significant number of consumers focused on health, nearly one-third are prioritizing immune health.
The gluten-free food trend has led some consumers without allergies to avoid wheat for uncertain health reasons, but Jacobs believes this trend has positively impacted wheat flour. “We’ve seen a surge in specialty flours fill that gap,” he said. “This has made the flour category much more dynamic, transforming what was once a stagnant aisle in grocery stores. Consumers are now more aware of the various options available, whether they seek gluten-free alternatives or specific health benefits.”
Although Flourish targets consumers, Jacobs mentioned that Bay State Milling could offer similar blends to manufacturing clients. Supplying Flourish to consumers might also attract manufacturers’ interest, allowing them to leverage the brand’s health-focused reputation. The success of Flourish could demonstrate manufacturers the importance consumers place on healthier flour options.
Jacobs explained that Bay State Milling carefully considered how to market its higher-fiber flour products to consumers. Although they thought about collaborating more closely with manufactured goods, they ultimately decided against it to ensure consumers fully grasped the health benefits of wheat. “We believe that flour, in its most basic form, is the best way to showcase the exceptional taste, texture, and performance this wheat flour can deliver,” Jacobs concluded.
As consumers become increasingly health-conscious, products like Flourish not only meet their demands but also highlight the potential for flour to contribute to a balanced diet, similar to how supplements like GNC calcium support overall health.
