Grain Foods Foundation Combats Rising Misinformation

In a bold response to growing anti-grain food sentiment, the grain-based foods industry is launching a coordinated scientific and marketing campaign to counter what it sees as damaging misinformation about its products.

The Grain Foods Foundation (GFF) has begun expanding its “Grain Foods Make the Moment” campaign, which was initially launched last October. Erin Ball, executive director of the GFF, emphasized the importance of unified messaging across the industry during an interview at the American Society of Baking’s BakingTech 2025 conference in Chicago.

“It’s an important time for the industry to work together,” Ball stated. “It’s an important time for us to agree on message and to be aggressively positive with that message. But I also think we need to remember that even if fear changes consumer behavior in the short term, it doesn’t last in the long term.”

The campaign has exceeded expectations according to Ball, outperforming industry norms in content performance, impressions, and engagement. The initiative deliberately takes a positive approach rather than directly addressing contentious topics about processed foods. Short video spots depicting everyday grain-based meals like sandwiches, pasta, and tacos have resonated particularly well with consumers.

This push comes at a critical moment for the grain industry. The 2025-30 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January, significantly diminished the recommended role of grain-based foods in American diets, positioning the category at the bottom of an inverted food pyramid.

Further complicating matters, a February CBS “60 Minutes” episode featured Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, supporting a petition calling on the FDA to revoke GRAS (generally recognized as safe) approval for certain food ingredients, including refined carbohydrates like flour.

These developments follow last year’s MAHA Commission report, which labeled refined grains as “unhealthy” processed foods, and a December lawsuit by San Francisco’s city attorney against major food companies over ultra-processed foods.

In response to these challenges, the GFF has intensified its outreach to nutrition professionals. In February, the foundation held a webinar on the public health benefits of enriched and fortified grain foods for over 4,400 registered dietitians, equipping them to promote grain foods as part of a healthy diet.

The GFF is also encouraging grain and baked goods manufacturers to integrate campaign messaging into their own marketing efforts. Companies like Grain Craft and Ardent Mills have already begun incorporating “Grain Foods Make the Moment” content into their digital marketing strategies.

“We’re talking to some bakers about how to get it in the hands of the people actually posting the content for their brands, and there’s certainly interest there,” Ball noted.

Beyond marketing, the industry is investing in scientific research to counter negative claims. Through its sister organization, the Grain Foods Research Institute, six studies are currently underway examining grain foods’ nutritional value and health impacts. Research topics include grain intake’s contribution to diet quality, health effects in adults, and relationships between bread consumption and diabetes or cardiovascular disease risk.

A particularly significant study at the University of Washington will model the nutritional outcomes of following the new Dietary Guidelines, comparing them to more traditional eating patterns. Ball pointed out that unlike previous cycles, the USDA and HHS did not include this modeling data in their latest guidelines.

“We couldn’t start the project until we had the actual Guidelines in hand because what we’re going to do is model out, if you ate this way, what does that mean nutritionally, and hold that up to more traditional patterns,” Ball explained. “That’s going to be a really powerful message.”

As anti-processing sentiment continues to gain momentum in public discourse, the grain industry appears to be shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach, focusing on positive messaging backed by scientific evidence rather than directly confronting critics.