WELCOME TO THE 8^TH INTERNATIONAL WHOLE GRAIN SUMMIT 2025!

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Partners

We are very pleased to announce the 8^th International Whole Grain Summit to be held in Detmold, Germany, 31 March – 2 April 2025 and hosted by AGF. In bringing together key players and experts, the Whole Grain Summit aims to seek innovative ideas that translate the available scientific and technological knowledge into application, enabling and motivating an increase in the availability of affordable and appetizing whole grain products in a diversity of markets. As the only international conference on whole grains, and with its highly interactive, discussion-based format, this meeting allows ample opportunity for participants across sectors and nationalities to share ideas and best-practices while simultaneously creating a clear action plan to increase whole grain consumption and create lasting change in our food landscape.

The Whole Grain Summit is an outstanding occasion to lend your voice and expertise in building the road map for the next several years of whole grain advocacy work. We hope you’ll come be a part of it!

A Record of Impact

The Whole Grain Summit has a long history of making significant impact on the framing of whole grains internationally, bringing together hundreds of stakeholders aiming to increase whole grain intake and understanding.

Since 2001, there have been a series of Summits held every few years, each making their mark and facilitating collaboration between scientists, health professionals, the commercial grain based field-to-fork value chain members, and policy makers. Out of the 6^th Whole Grain Summit in Vienna, came the founding of the Whole Grain Initiative, which has created international working groups focused on definitions, quantitative intake recommendations, health economics, communications and partnerships, and food policy, along with an Asia-Pacific working group tasked with region-specific advocacy work. The outcomes have been impressive and wide-ranging, including 1) the establishment, publication, and adoption by ISO of consensus definitions for whole grain ingredients and whole grain foods, 2) the publication of four research articles relating to health economics in Australia, the United States, and Finland, 3) the organization of an annual educational whole grain campaign each November, 4) persistent advocacy work in whole grain labeling and regulations, particularly at the EU level, and 5) significant progress toward the completion of a substantial literature review/synthesis project establishing the scientific evidence for a quantitative intake recommendation.

2025 and Beyond

Over the course of the three-day Whole Grain Summit, we look forward to developing a vision and strategic plan forward that positions the commercial grain based field-to-fork value chain as a true leader in promoting human health. Grain foods supply almost half the world’s daily calories, but refined grains are eaten far more frequently than whole grains. We advocate for many of these refined grain foods to be replaced by whole gran options over the next several years. To accomplish these goals, our path forward must be both rooted in science and grounded in practical advice. We will need collaborative contributions from participants in every connected sector, and all across the grain supply chain. We look forward to the discussions and interactions to come, and we have great hope that this meeting will help us bring whole grains to more individuals around the globe.