Before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled world travel, USW and WMC had planned technical training courses for five of the next six weeks. Starting with this update, we will review the most recent courses for each of the countries that were scheduled to be at WMC this month.
USW/Taiwan had reserved this week for an End Products Collaborative workshop. Since that activity has been postponed, we wanted to reflect on two recent courses we conducted for Taiwanese customers:
USW Taiwan End Products & Flour Study – click for more photos
Taiwan End Products & Flour Study (August 2019) – The objective of this course was to test several US wheat classes to identify the optimal flour blend for Chinese-style tortillas (pictured here.) This was a new product for WMC staff, so the course was a learning experience all around. In addition to the workshop, the team visited a local French bakery and a food truck serving “bing,” stuffed Chinese pancakes.
USW Taiwan Frozen Dough Course
Taiwan Frozen Dough Course (June 2018) – Participants in this course learned how to adjust formulations for a range of frozen dough products, including pan bread and baguettes. WMC Operations Manager Bon Lee invited a local baker (and former frozen dough facility CEO) to be a guest lecturer. The team also visited Ardent Mills’ Innovative Bakery Resources.
While WMC staff miss the opportunity to share knowledge with our Taiwanese customers, we continue to work on lab testing, crop quality preparation and research projects. We are also working with our stakeholders to identify remote training options.