Wheat flour from Ukraine is milled from soft bread wheat and sold to EU bakeries and food manufacturers on four numbers: ash, protein, wet gluten and falling number. Ukrainian grade names do not translate one-to-one into German or French flour types, so the contract should state the parameters rather than the grade name.
At a glance
- Raw material: soft and medium-hard bread wheat, milled year round from silo stock
- Grades: Ukrainian extra, first and second grade, wholemeal; mapped to EU types by ash
- Key numbers: ash, protein, wet gluten, gluten index, falling number, alveograph W
- Trade unit: 25 or 50 kg bags, 1 t big bags or bulk tanker
- Key risk: new-crop switch in August and September changes baking behaviour
Ukrainian mills grind domestic soft wheat on modern roller mills, and most export flour is sold as a straight-run or patent flour from a single grist. Whether that suits a buyer depends less on the country of origin than on how the grist was built and how stable it stays from one month to the next.
Grades, cuts and calibration
Grades and types. Ukrainian standards name flour by grade (extra, first, second) and by wholemeal. EU buyers think in national type numbers: German Type 405, 550, 812 and 1050, or French T45, T55, T65 and T80. Both systems are built on ash, so the honest translation is an ash band on dry matter, not a name. Type numbers are national conventions; they bind only when the contract names them.
Baking quality. Protein sets volume potential, wet gluten and gluten index describe how much gluten there is and how strong it is, falling number shows enzyme activity, and the alveograph W and P/L describe dough strength and balance. A bread flour, a biscuit flour and a pasta-filata pizza flour need different combinations.
Seasonality and availability
Flour is available all year. The quality risk sits at the crop change in August and September, when mills move from old-crop to new-crop wheat. Ask for the date of the grist change and for a pilot sample from the new grist before the first new-crop delivery.
What the buyer checks at intake
- Moisture, ash and protein against the contracted bands, with the method stated on the certificate.
- Wet gluten, gluten index and falling number on every lot; alveograph or farinograph on a frequency agreed in the contract.
- Mycotoxin results for DON and the other toxins named in the contract, sampled to Regulation (EU) 2023/2782.
- Sifting residue, insect fragments and bag integrity at unloading.
- Certificate of analysis matched to the lot and date of milling.
Where it is used
Industrial bakeries, frozen dough producers, biscuit and cracker plants, pizza and food service chains, and repackers for private label retail. Each buys a different flour: bread wants protein and gluten strength, biscuits want weak, extensible gluten and low water absorption.
Standards and routes
Bagged flour moves by curtainsider or in dry containers; bulk flour by pneumatic tanker. Flour is ambient cargo but it absorbs odours and moisture, so trailers must be clean, dry and dedicated to food.
Common specification mistakes
- Buying on a Ukrainian grade name without an ash band on dry matter
- Specifying protein but not gluten index or falling number
- Accepting NIR results where the contract needs reference methods
- Ignoring the new-crop grist change in August and September
How to brief a supplier
- State the application and the target flour type by ash on dry matter
- Give bands for protein, wet gluten, gluten index and falling number
- Name the reference methods for each parameter
- State the mycotoxin and residue position by instrument
- Ask for a pilot sample and the date of the next grist change
- Define packaging, palletisation and the label language