The market for flax seed sold directly to consumers for use in food products has been increasing both in volume and in regions. Whole flaxseed is appearing on store shelves in the form of bulk or of packaged product. Suppliers of this seed work with their customers to develop specifications for their product. These specifications are usually much more detailed and stringent in quality than the Canadian Grain Commission’s grade specifications for No. 1 Canada Flaxseed.(Canadian Grain Commission 2005)(Table 1). The grade specifications were developed for flax seed destined for commercial crushing to produce linseed oil and meal and, as a result, allow quantities of admixture damaged seed that are not desirable in flax seed destined for food use. There have been some reports, however, especially of bulk seed destined for food use that appear to be simply a selection of No. 1 Canada seed. The sale of this seed for food use, while not unsafe, is not likely to provide the storability expected and, for aesthetic reasons, does not add to the marketability of the product.
Most Canadian suppliers of food quality flaxseed have access to seed cleaning facilities that enable them to produce the high quality seed expected for food use. While we recognized that the specifications may vary from company to company and may differ for different customers and usages, we felt that there was likely a baseline specification that would be applicable as a starting point for most contracts. This work summarizes the results of a survey of eight suppliers of food quality flaxseed (Table 2) in which they provided information on the specifications that customers required, or they provided, for their product. In addition, the suppliers each provided a typical sample of their product seed and several samples of their incoming (farm delivered) seed. This work also summarizes the physical and chemical properties of these samples.