Frequently asked questions - our answers

We source more than 80% of our grain from the surrounding area - that means within a radius of about 200 km. If the grain is not milled immediately, it is stored in silo cells on our premises.

In addition to the flour type, i.e. the mineral content, there are other distinguishing criteria for flours. One of them is the so-called baking strength or starch of the flour. It is measured with the Chopin Alveograph in the unit W-value.

The strength of flour is its ability to absorb water during kneading and to retain carbon dioxide during fermentation. Of course, the protein or (resulting) gluten content also plays a role:

• A weak flour, i.e. with a low W value (below 170), has a low gluten value, absorbs little water and can only retain carbon dioxide to a limited extent during fermentation (weaker pronounced gluten structure). A flour with a low W value is used, for example, for cookie or shortbread doughs.
   
• Flours with high W values (from 280) indicate a high gluten content, can absorb a lot of water and are able to withstand long fermentation times (firm gluten structure). Such flours are necessary, for example, in bread making or in the pastry sector for panettone, which must rise strongly.
   
• in between are flours with average W values of 170-280.

Now for the art of pizza baking:

For a crispy pizza, the pizza maker needs a very elastic dough and thus a flour with a medium to high W-value. A pizza baker who wants to bake a pizza in a hurry is more likely to use a flour with a low W-value, because yeast fermentation is faster with this flour.

W-values of the Frießinger special flours as examples:

Frießinger Pizza flour Tipo 00:    270-310
Pizza flour „La Farina 14“:           350-360

• The raw material for our products, the grain, grows in numerous grain fields and reaches our mill from there after harvesting.
• In the mill, the grain is prepared for milling and mechanically processed into flour and many other milled products.
• Our pre-packaged flour and milled products that you can purchase are thus genuine natural products. Therefore, they should never be consumed in their raw state (e.g. as cake or cookie dough).

Our recommendation for handling raw flour and milling products is therefore:

• After working with raw flour, wash equipment and surfaces in the kitchen, as well as hands with hot water and soap
• Dishes containing raw flour and milled products should only be eaten heated through, if necessary follow the baking instructions.

We process various products containing allergens in our company.

We declare traces of allergens, where cross-contamination is possible, on our packaging and also on the homepage for the respective product. This concerns the allergens gluten, lupine, soy, milk (incl. lactose), hen's egg and sesame. Gluten is present almost everywhere in our grain mill. The other allergens mentioned are used in the operation and may therefore be present in the labeled products.

Corn or also buckwheat are botanically gluten-free. However, we are - among other things - a wheat mill, which is why wheat dust cannot be excluded here. Traces of wheat flour or wheat and therefore gluten are therefore possible.

We try to avoid contamination with gluten through rinsing batches and cleaning, but would like to point out to our consumers with the note on the packaging "may contain gluten" that traces may be possible despite this greatest care.

Yes, we have various allergens in the company that require labeling (gluten, lupine, soy, milk (incl. lactose), hen's egg and sesame), which we declare as such voluntarily - as possible traces in relevant products.

We do not use a "free from..." label.

One exception to this is the gluten-free label, which we use for various products and also monitor accordingly. But this also does not define a label "free from...". (see also "What does the crossed-out ear of corn on packaging mean, as in the case of Küchenmeister Feinen Speisestärke, for example?").

The crossed-out ear of corn is an internationally recognized mark for gluten-free foods. Once this mark is used, high production standards must be met to ensure the safety of the product licensed with the "German Celiac Society" (DZG).

It must nevertheless be noted: even the defined "gluten-free" allows minimal traces of up to 20 mg of gluten per kg of food.More details can also be found here.

To store baked bread properly and keep it fresh for a long time, there are a few helpful tips to follow. Because especially in the summer, bread molds very quickly. As soon as a loaf of bread is infested with mold, the entire loaf should definitely be discarded and the place where it is stored should be cleaned well (e.g. with vinegar water). The following tips for the proper storage of bread:

• It is best to store bread in ventilated bread boxes or clay pots, not in the refrigerator.
• Store the bread as dry as possible, airy, at 12-18°C, because the more you prevent the bread from drying out, the more it tends to mold.
• Bread can also be frozen very well. The important thing here is to avoid air pockets.

In principle, baking mixes have a long shelf life because they are a dry product. However, the limiting factor for the shelf life is the quality of the yeast. This decreases in the course of storage and affects the volume of the bread. Depending on the storage conditions, dry products are also easily susceptible to animal infestation (bugs or similar).

However, provided that no deviations can be detected in the baking mixtures (odor, possible pests or other conspicuous features such as, in the case of sunflower bread, rancidity of the sunflower seeds or similar), the bread baking mixture can certainly still be used.

Regarding the yeast: Warm water should be added. To be on the safe side, dry yeast can also be added to obtain a nice bread.

The actual filling quantity does not have to correspond exactly to the specified net filling quantity. Manufacturers may not fall below the filling quantity on average within a product batch only. Certain deviations of individual packages are permitted within certain legal tolerance limits. However, if the prepackage weighs significantly less than the specified contents, this can be considered underfilling (for more information on food labeling, see here).

Our tip: Do not weigh with kitchen appliances such as the Thermomix, as these are often very inaccurate.

Frießinger Mühle takes every possible precaution to ensure that only correctly filled packs leave the premises. All filling machines work very reliably and are checked regularly. The responsible calibration office certifies annually that the filling machines work with exact weight dosing. In addition to official calibration, the test equipment is regularly adjusted with test weights as part of internal monitoring. Furthermore, employees are also required to carry out close-meshed check weighings, which are recorded. Packages with excessive weight differences are automatically sorted out by our filling equipment.

Occasionally, however, weight loss due to dehydration is observed in ground products after filling. The cause of this weight loss is water- or air-permeable bags in which the milled products can dry out during storage.

For optimal milling, the grain must have a water content of 15% at the time of production. This can drop sharply after just a few days, depending on the storage conditions.

However, it is not possible to prevent drying out by using airtight bags, since flour is a natural product and must "breathe". In airtight packaging, it would become musty or even moldy and spoil.

Of course not!

Since January 24, crickets and cereal mold beetles are permitted as novel foods in the EU and may be used as an ingredient in a wide variety of foods. We are currently also receiving many inquiries about this, which is why we would like to position ourselves clearly in this way.

For us, the following applies: Flour remains flour!

Irrespective of the Novel Food Regulation, the hygiene requirements for foodstuffs of the European Hygiene Regulation (Regulation (EC) 852/2004) apply to cereal flours, which expressly stipulates that "contamination by pests must be prevented as far as possible".As a certified flour mill, we ensure that only healthy cereals are processed. This is an integral part of the company's hygiene concept.

The approval of insects as food does not mean that insect-infested grain may now be processed or flour produced in this way may be sold. As a consumer of our cereal products, you can be sure: "Flour remains flour!"