Wheat

One of the world’s dominant cereal grains, the foundation of bread, pasta, noodles, couscous, and countless baked goods, grown across temperate regions in bread-wheat and durum types. Its unique gluten proteins give dough the elasticity and extensibility needed to trap fermentation gases and rise, a property no other cereal fully replicates. Wheat quality, including protein content, kernel hardness, and vitreosity, decides its end use, from strong bread wheats to soft biscuit wheats and durum for pasta. It is also a major declared allergen and the trigger for coeliac disease, so its presence must be labelled. Globally it supplies a large share of human calories and protein, making its production, trade, and quality central to food security.