Researchers from the University of Hohenheim are testing colorful wheat breads in a baking marathon held from May 8 to 9, 2025. Specialists will bake breads using flour from 25 different wheat varieties. The event comprises baking and expert quality tasting, including flavor assessments.

Colorful wheat for a healthier diet

White and purple wheat varieties are hardly established in Germany so far, but they can help to make wholemeal bread more attractive, the University illustrates: “Because they produce lighter breads, they taste less like wholemeal and outperform common wheat varieties with a broader spectrum of healthy ingredients,” according to a study by researchers at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

Experts from research and the bakery trade will test whether the colorful wheat varieties are also convincing in the bakery trade during a baking marathon on May 8, 2025 in the BeckaBeck bakery in Römerstein. Master bakers Heiner Beck and Christian Böck will produce the test breads.  On May 9, the specialists will taste and evaluate the test breads and present their results at 11 a.m., report on differences in quality and taste – and host a press event to discuss the findings.

The specialists observe that bread should look and taste soft and light-colored for the majority of consumers, which makes the often darker wholemeal breads less popular. Current figures also show this, they highlight: “The proportion of whole grains in the bread market is currently just under 11 % – and the trend is downwards.”

In three years of field and laboratory work, Prof. Dr. Friedrich Longin, Head of the Wheat Working Group at the State Seed Breeding Institute at the University of Hohenheim, and Prof. Dr. Mario Jekle, Head of the Department of Plant-Based Foods at the University of Hohenheim, have investigated whether colorful wheat varieties can make the consumption of whole grain products more attractive.

Colored wheat for more whole grains

For their study, the researchers tested six white wheat varieties, eight common wheat varieties, 10 purple wheat varieties and one yellow flour wheat variety. The grain was grown at different locations and under conventional and organic farming conditions. The wheat varieties were then tested in the laboratory for their ingredients and baking properties.

The baking marathon in the BeckaBeck bakery is intended to help establish colored wheat along the value chain and sustainably improve healthy nutrition with baked goods, from the field to the store shelves.

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