Why is there malted barley flour in all purpose flour?

Question

A friend and I were puzzled to see "malted barley flour" listed as an ingredient in all-purpose flour and bread flour but not cake flour or any sort of whole-wheat flour. This was the case for every flour brand I checked (two "store" brands and three advertised brands - all U.S. brands). My friend said that would never happen in Hungary.

I looked over the detailed discussion on this site of different kinds of flour and protein/gluten percentages, hard wheat vs. soft wheat, etc., but no mention of malted barley flour.

So I am curious:

What exactly is malted barley flour?
What function does it serve?
About how much of it is included? (like 30%? or more like 1%?)
Do any other countries besides U.S. put this in their (wheat) flour?

Ecnerwal · Answer

Note - label on my bag says all purpose flour, not all purpose wheat flour. So you can take that strawman (#4) for a long walk on a short pier. You won't find it in the "100% whole wheat flour"

Purpose (#2) - malted barley is yummy yeast food (or the makings of beer.) So, not surprising that you find in in flour intended to serve the needs of yeast baked products.

What is it? (#1) Barley (a grain) that has been malted (sprouted) which converts starches to sugars by enzymatic action, and is then kilned (dried) to stop the process, then ground into flour.

Percentage (#3) no idea, but likely closer to 1 than 30.

Leigh Harris · Answer

From the Code of Federal Regulations, 21CFR137.105:

(a) Flour, white flour, wheat flour, plain flour, is the food prepared
by grinding and bolting cleaned wheat, other than durum wheat and red
durum wheat. To compensate for any natural deficiency of enzymes,
malted wheat, malted wheat flour, malted barley flour, or any
combination of two or more of these, may be used; but the quantity of
malted barley flour so used is not more than 0.75 percent.

Why is there malted barley flour in all purpose flour?

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