Volkmar Wywiol is founder of the owner-operated Stern-Wywiol Gruppe, which specialises in Food & Feed Ingredients. With 12 specialist German companies and 17 foreign subsidiaries, this family-owned Group is known worldwide as an ingredient specialist. Broad-based applications technology is central to the Group’s philosophy, and over 100 scientists, technologists, technicians and industry experts work in the development and improvement of modern foods. The Group’s success is based on custom product solutions and personal advice.

Mühlenchemie is an important part of the Group. It has specialised in flour standardisation and improvement for almost 100 years, and has contributed important ideas to the global milling industry. The Alphamalt enzyme is the world’s most used enzyme preparation for improving baking quality. Many other products help with freshness preservation, water absorption, gluten reduction and other issues that often present millers with challenges in supplying flour with consistent baking qualities. For example, Pastazym is an enzyme system developed to give wheat flour the ideal al-dente pasta properties. It’s an economical tour de force that saves money for users. Mühlenchemie sees itself as a peer-level partner to millers, and its representatives can be frequently found on site with customers. According to company data, each year 100 million tonnes of flour are improved using MC ingredients, be it for flour standardisation or for enrichment with vitamins and minerals. The company’s MC Navigator for milling & baking is an information poster you can find in any mill lab nowadays. This problem & solution advice is also available online.

Mr Wywiol is a patron of the arts. When he found a flour sack washed up on the beach in Dubai 20 years ago, he thought to himself, “I can’t just leave it lying here like a dead dog.” He dug it up with the crazy idea of hanging it in his office as a work of art. No one could then have foreseen that this random find would turn into a great museum, the FlourWorld Museum in Wittenburg near Hamburg, Germany. It was developed as an homage to the millers for our daily flour, and is the only museum of its kind in the world. The logos of over 3500 flour sacks from over 140 countries show traditions, tell stories and myths around milling, and are works of art that portray the strength of grain. This collection of “the art on the sack” is a world sensation and the keeper of a milling culture that will soon no longer exist in this beauty and expressiveness. Every year 400-500 millers from many parts of the world visit the museum, along with thousands of area visitors and school classes.

Mr Wywiol is also credited with establishing World Flour Day!

STATEMENT FROM THE COMMITTEE

Volkmar Wywiol

An individual who not only identified the need, but brought about the establishment of the “World Flour Day’ (March 20 each year), set up the flour industry’s unique ‘FlourWorld Museum’ to promote a wider knowledge and understanding of the industry but to educate and record, and who has been a driving force in flour improvement globally. It is a great honour to induct him into the ‘Milling Hall of Fame’ as its first-joint milling hero.