Red logo, “CRC”, “Organic”, “ground on stone mills”, “Bagatelle”… On bags of French flour, there are many logos and terms, and they don’t all mean the same thing. Some are official quality labels, some are supply chain programs, and others are a milling method or just a brand name.

Here are the explanations from Bakery Distribution Warehouse, the importer of Foricher French flour in the USA, whose products carry these labels and terms!

Official quality and origin labels

In France, these labels are set by the State and checked by independent certification bodies. Three types of labels apply to flour.

• Label Rouge certifies a higher level of quality than similar standard products. Its rules cover wheat varieties, production, storage and milling, and the criteria are checked by lab tests. It exists for some soft wheat flours for bread making, especially for traditional French bread. It is about the quality of the finished product (consistency, performance in the bakery, taste). It does not mean “organic”.
• Organic farming (AB) follows European law: no synthetic pesticides, no synthetic chemical fertilizers, no GMOs, and strong traceability from the field to the mill. The Euro-leaf (the EU organic logo) is required on all pre-packaged organic products. It often appears with the French AB logo, the code of the certification body and the origin of the raw materials (“Agriculture France”, “Agriculture UE”).
• PDO and PGI protect a product linked to a specific region. For flour, they mostly apply to special grains or nuts: buckwheat flour from Brittany (PGI), einkorn wheat from Haute-Provence (PGI) and chestnut flour from Corsica (PDO).

Supply chain and farming programs

These terms show specific commitments, but they are not official quality and origin labels.

• CRC (Culture Raisonnée Contrôlée, or “Controlled Sustainable Farming”) is a French supply chain program, from the field to the mill. Farmers follow a set of rules that limits and justifies the treatments they use. The grains are tracked and the results are tested (residues, natural toxins). CRC sits between conventional farming and organic farming. It does not replace organic, because treatments are not forbidden, but they are limited and controlled. A strong point of this program is that the wheat is stored after harvest without insecticide.
• The High Environmental Value (HVE) certification is a certification for farms. Its highest level looks at biodiversity, crop protection strategy, fertilizer use and water management. So it applies to the farm, not to the flour itself.
• Supply chain charters and rulebooks, led by cooperatives, millers or trade associations, aim to guarantee the origin of the wheat, the choice of varieties or sustainable farming practices. These are private programs. How reliable they are depends on the standard behind them and on an external audit. These are two points to check.

What is not a label

• “Stone-ground flour” is flour ground between stone mills, like in the old days, instead of between metal rollers, which are the most common today. This type of milling often keeps more parts of the grain and gives flour with a more rustic taste. It is a way of milling, not an official quality label. Stone-ground flour can be excellent, conventional or organic.
• A product range name, like Bagatelle at Foricher (a mill in the Loiret region), is not a label. The name of the range shows where the flour comes from, but the logos show what is guaranteed. Bagatelle flours follow certified programs, such as CRC and, depending on the product, Label Rouge.
• Origin claims (Origin France, French wheat, flour made in France) are not the same. “Origin France” follows a precise framework, “French wheat” refers to where the wheat was grown, while “flour made in France” may only mean the place where the flour was milled.

What are the benefits of these labels for French flour?

Labeled flours bring:

• Transparency: for official labels, an independent body checks the rules.
• Consistency: a controlled supply chain gives stable characteristics (strength, tolerance, behavior during kneading), which makes production easier to manage.
• Social and environmental commitments: less use of chemicals, respect for the environment, support for local regions, traceability.
• Added value: bakers have clear arguments to explain their choices to their customers.

These marks can be combined (a flour can be both CRC and Label Rouge). However, Label Rouge has several sets of rules depending on the product, so its scope changes from one product to another.

Zoom: is French flour better labeled than American flour?

The answer is not simple!

On one side, Label Rouge and CRC exist only in France. As far as we know, they have no direct equivalent in the United States, where quality is mostly shown through brands and private certifications. European rules are also stricter on some additives, like potassium bromate (used as a bread improver), which is banned in the EU but allowed at the US federal level (California will ban it from 2027). On the other side, most French flours do not carry any official label, and the United States has its own certifications (USDA Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified).

The case of organic. European organic and USDA Organic follow the same main principles (no synthetic pesticides, no synthetic chemical fertilizers, no GMOs, regular checks). The two systems have recognized each other since 2012, so European organic flour can be sold as organic in the United States. But they are not exactly the same: some detailed rules and the certification bodies are different. So what makes French organic flour special is its wheat: grown in France, with a clearly stated origin.

Conclusion: learn to read labels to choose well!

A label guarantees that a defined set of rules is followed. It does not mean universal superiority.

To choose a flour, the safest approach is to look at three things: the label (official label, supply chain program, milling method or brand), the rules behind each logo, and the technical characteristics:

• protein;
• W strength (how strong the dough is and how well it holds gas);
• P/L ratio (the balance between how firm and how stretchy the dough is);
• Hagberg falling number (a measure of enzyme activity in the wheat);
• ash content (the amount of minerals, which shows how refined the flour is).

This is the standard of Foricher. Its flours follow certifications that are not just sales arguments. These certifications make it possible to offer consistent flours, and you can explain their origin and commitments to your customers.

^{(Photo credit: Moulins Foricher)}