WASHINGTON, DC — At the close of NEXUS 2024, held Oct. 1-3 and powered by BEMA and the American Bakers Association (ABA), attendees tuned in to a conversation about what the Grain Foods Foundation (GFF) is up to and how it’s supporting the commercial baking industry.
During the education session “Celebrating Grain Foods,” Joanie Spencer, VP and partner of Avant Food Media, and Erin Ball, executive director of GFF, dove into the organization’s mission, resources and role within the industry.
“A lot of companies who participate in NEXUS, who are either ABA or BEMA members or in the organizations themselves, are connected with GFF,” Spencer shared, “and some might not even know it or know what GFF does.”
Throughout the conversation, Spencer and Ball outlined just that: the organization’s initiatives and roles within and for the commercial baking industry.
While the work conducted by the association may seem like it’s focused on consumers and health influencers, GFF’s first target audience is its investors, also known as baking companies and industry stakeholders that back the organization financially.
“Everything we’re doing, we’re undertaking these efforts to better equip you to do your business, to talk to your customers and ultimately make and supply products that people will feel good about,” Ball explained.
Research is one way GFF continues to bolster the industry. As part of its 2023-2026 strategic plan, the association is also looking into consumer insights research in addition to nutrition science. Ball shared that the consumer side of the research supports its nutrition science counterpart.
“We don’t want to be undertaking any funded nutrition that doesn’t answer questions that people actually have about our products,” Ball said. “We first have to understand consumers, and then we take what we have learned and will learn about consumers and feed that back into the way we’re targeting and directing the nutrition science program.”
The association also gains guidance from the Scientific Advisory Board, a 10-person coalition of science researchers and clinicians.
“They weigh in as we’ve crafted this nutrition science program,” Ball explained. “As it continues to evolve, they help us articulate what we’re looking for and trying to learn.”
The nutrition science branch of GFF’s research has been underway since 2014, and since then, the association has begun funding more sophisticated clinical trials. A $1.5 million study in the works is focused on the health effects of eating whole grain foods vs. refined grain foods and is being conducted by Richard Mattes, PhD, and Stephen Lindemann, PhD, at Purdue University. While the study is still a ways away from completion, the study is a crucial investment for the industry years in the making.
“They’re trying to recruit 125 subjects,” Ball explained. “It doesn’t work quickly, but the quality of the data we’re going to have for 125 subjects is going to be incredible, and it’ll be worth the wait.”
“Everything we’re doing, we’re undertaking these efforts to better equip you to do your business, to talk to your customers and ultimately make and supply products that people will feel good about.” — Erin Ball | executive director | Grain Foods Foundation
One additional area of focus for GFF is finding ways to connect with health influencers, which fall into three categories: media, clinicians and policymakers.
“We want to get our messages and research into the hands of those three groups so that they will then deploy those same messages and resources to their consumer audiences,” Ball said. “Not only are media, clinicians and policymakers consumers, they are reaching consumer audiences, so they’re sort of our proxy for consumers. We’ve really found a lot of traction in various ways over the past several years in pushing out our messages to those target audiences.”
GFF has also engaged several “GFF Champions,” social media influencers who are registered dietitians who are able to reformat the association’s insight for a consumer audience. These influencers include Charlotte Martin — featured in Season 10 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast — and Taylor Grasso, as well as its two latest additions Andrea (Andy) Mathis and Toby Amidor.
“The way that these dietitians weave in science alongside how people talk about what they eat has been really powerful,” Ball shared. “That’s a tactic that I feel really proud of.”
In fact, the association is leveraging these content creators’ skills and reach through its first influencer event involving 10-15 social media influencers, hosted by GFF in Annapolis in summer 2025. In having them engage with the association’s Scientific Advisory Board, the hope is that the influencers are able to leave the event with plenty of content that can be distributed to their respective audiences online.
However, GFF investors remain top of mind for the association. Ball shared that GFF has developed several newsletters — one for investors and one focused on science — to offer essential insights.
“We think that if we provide you as GFF investors with excellent content, you can share that content with your workforce, social audiences and whatever other communities you are communicating with,” Ball explained.
Investing in quality research is a critical pillar for GFF. Ball stated that the association recently formed the Grain Foods Research Institute, a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit, to help draw in external research dollars to match up with funding. The association is leaving no stone unturned, looking into a vast array of grant funding options to help finance future nutrition science programs.
The association is also keen on bringing in employees from GFF investor companies to support GFF as members of the audit committee, research pillar task force, consumer insights working group and more.
“These are all committees, task forces, and working groups that are staffed by folks from GFF investor companies,” Ball noted. “If you have someone who’s passionate about consumer insights, has some background in consumer insights, is involved in R&D, or if you’d like to become more involved, talk to me.”
From quintessential research to key messaging, GFF is solidifying its role as a resource for the baking industry.
