First redesigned Unifine mill system to be installed at The Dalles

Interest in whole grain flour milling and the Unifine Mill seems to be “busting loose,” according to Unifine President Steve Fulton.

Unifine crews will install the company’s first system in January at Azure Mill in Dufur, Ore., just outside of The Dalles, Fulton said. This is a modular system. Each of the mill towers can produce 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of flour an hour, Fulton said.

Fulton also said Turkey might be a major market for the Unifine Mill. The Prime Minister of Turkey is insisting on whole grain flour milling for the whole country and getting rid of white flour altogether.

Fulton has been talking to officials from Turkey and hopes to meet with them at Washington State University, where the newest Unifine Mill was developed, early next year.

“There was a delegation from Turkey back in the 1950s, and they were very supportive of the prototype they observed and looked forward to the commercial production of the mill,” Fulton said. “It just took 60 years for that to happen.”

Fulton will be in Colfax for a presentation of the Unifine Mill April 15 at the Colfax Library.

Fulton’s uncle, Leonard, built a mill in 1953, and operated it near Fairfield for 20 years. The mill produced 200,000 pounds of flour per year.

Instead of processing grain a dozen times as standard flour mills do, this system processes the grain once, preserving the whole grain nutrients.

After more than 50 years, Fulton brought an old flour mill to WSU industrial design students and introduced the re-engineered design a year ago.

Fulton said the company will introduce an extraction flour that has all the germ, but half the bran extracted rather than reconstituted as the white flour milling does to get to the same point. But white flour milling results in a highly over-processed product, expensively produced with a lot of starch or functionality damage in the process.

He said science done at WSU has confirmed optimum functionality if half the bran is removed. The company hopes to have some major baking commercial entities in the Spokane area using the flour produced by the mill at The Dalles.