BREAKFAST CEREALS

DEFINITIONBreakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often eaten as the first meal of the day. It is eaten hot or cold, usually mixed with milk, yoghurt or fruit. Some breakfast cereals require brief cooking, but these hot cereals are less popular than cold ready-to-eat cereals.

BACKGROUND Pre-historic people ground whole grains and cooked them with

water to form gruels and porridges similar. Cold cereals dint not develop until the second half of the 19th century.

Ready-to-eat were in vented because of religious beliefs. An American clergyman, Sylvester Graham, who advocated a vegetarian diet. He made the first “ Quarter Oats” in 1829 .

Influenced by Graham, Seventh-Day Adventists, who also believed in vegetarianism, founded the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan, in the 1860s. At this institute, later known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium, physician John Harvey Kellogg invented several grain-based meat substitutes.

In 1876 or 1877, Kellogg invented a food he called granola from wheat, oats, and corn that had been mixed, baked, and coarsely ground. In 1894, Kellogg and his brother W. K. Kellogg invented the first precooked flaked cereal. They cooked ground wheat into a dough, then flattened it between metal rollers and scraped it off with a knife. The resulting flakes were then cooked again and allowed to stand for several hours. This product was sold by mail order as Granose for 15 cents per 10-ounce (284 g) package.

Both W. K. Kellogg and C. W. Post, a patient at the sanitarium, founded businesses to sell such products as health foods. Their success led dozens of imitators to open factories in Battle Creek between 1900 and 1905. These businesses quickly failed, while Kellogg and Post still survive as thriving manufacturers of breakfast cereals.

Kellogg and Post both manufactured corn flakes, which turned out to be much more popular than wheat flakes.

Manufacturing of corn flakes

Raw Materials Most important raw material – Grain, which in this case is corn. Sweeteners used- Malt ( obtained from barley), white sugar, brown

sugar and corn syrup. Some are natural sweetened by concentrated fruit juice.

Flavours- chocolate, strawberry, cinnamon and other spices and fruit flavours can be added.

Other ingredients include nuts, dried fruits and marshmallow etc.. Vitamins and minerals are often added to replace those lost during

cooking. Antioxidants such as BHA and BHT are the preservatives most often

added to breakfast cereals to prevent the cereals from going rancid and stale.

Preparing the Grain: Grain is received at the cereal factory, inspected, and cleaned.

Whole grains or partially ground grains or flour can be used. They are then mixed with flavouring agents, vitamins, minerals,

sweeteners, salt, and water in a large rotating pressure cooker. The cooked grain is moved to a conveyor belt, which passes

through a drying oven. Enough of the water remains in the cooked grain to result in a soft, solid mass which can be shaped as needed. If flour is used instead of grains, it is cooked in a cooking extruder.

At the end of the extruder, the cooked dough emerges as a ribbon. A rotating knife cuts the ribbon into pellets. These pellets are then processed in much the same way as cooked grains.

Making Flaked Cereals: The cooked grains are allowed to cool for several hours, stabilizing the

moisture content of each grain. This process is known as tempering. The tempered grains are flattened between large metal rollers under tons of pressure. The resulting flakes are conveyed to ovens where they are tossed in a blast of very hot air to remove remaining moisture and to toast them to a desirable colour and flavour.

Making Other Cereals: Cereals can be made in a wide variety of special shapes (circles,

letters of the alphabet, etc.) with a cooking extruder. A die is added to the end of the extruder which forms a ribbon of cooked dough with the desired cross-section shape. A rotating knife cuts the ribbon into small pieces with the proper shape. These shaped pieces of dough are processed in a manner similar to puffing. Instead of completely puffing, however, the pieces expand only partially in order to maintain the special shape.

Hot cereals are made by processing the grain as necessary (rolling or cutting oats, cracking wheat, or milling corn into grits) and partly cooking it so the consumer can cook it quickly in hot water. Salt, sweeteners, flavors, and other ingredients may or may not be added to the partly cooked mixture.

Adding Coatings: After shaping, the cereal may be coated with vitamins,

minerals, sweeteners, flavors such as fruit juices, food colors, or preservatives. Frosting is applied by spraying a thick, hot syrup of sugar on the cereal in a rotating drum. As it cools the syrup dries into a white layer of frosting.

Packaging: Some cereals, such as shredded wheat, are fairly resistant to

damage from moisture. They may be placed directly into cardboard boxes or in cardboard boxes lined with plastic. Most cereals must be packaged in airtight, waterproof plastic bags within cardboard boxes to protect them from spoiling.

An automated machine packages the cereal at a rate of about 40 boxes per minute. The box is assembled from a flat sheet of cardboard, which has been previously printed with the desired pattern for the outside of the box. The bottom and sides of the box are sealed with a strong glue. The bag is formed from moisture-proof plastic and inserted into the box. The cereal fills the bag and the bag is tightly sealed by heat. The top of the box is sealed with a weak glue which allows the consumer to open it easily. The completed boxes of cereal are packed into cartons which usually hold 12, 24, or 36 boxes and shipped to the retailer.

Quality Control: Every step is carefully monitored for quality. Sanitation is

necessary. Machines- Stainless Steel, thoroughly cleaned and sterilized with hot steam.

Grain is inspected for any foreign material when it arrives, and when it is cooked and when it is shaped.

To ensure the proper cooking and shaping, the temperature and moisture content of vitamins and minerals is measured to ensure the accurate nutrition information. Filled packages are weighed to ensure that the contents of each box is consistent.

In order to label boxes with an accurate shelf life, the quality of stored cereal is tested over time. In order to be able to monitor freshness over a reasonable period of time, the cereals are subjected to higher than normal temperature and humidity in order to speed up the spoiling process.

Manufacturing of Oats

Background Wild oats were eaten as early as the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The

Romans cultivated it. The Teutons and the Gauls used it to make gruel. Often growing weed-like amongst wheat and barley, oats thrive in cold

climates with a short growing season, hence its prevalence in Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia, and Germany. In those countries it became a basic foodstuff well into the nineteenth century.

Haggis—a blend of oatmeal, goat organs, onions, and spices that are roasted in pieces of goat stomach—is still enjoyed as a traditional Scottish meal.

In the United States, however, oats were viewed as nothing more than horse feed until a German grocer named Ferdinand Schumacher emigrated to the United States in the mid-1800s and saw a ready market for oatmeal in the growing immigrant population.

In 1854, Schumacher began grinding oats in his Akron, Ohio, store, using a hand mill similar that used to grind coffee beans. Within two years he opened the German Mills American Oatmeal Company. Using a water wheel to generate power and rotate two large millstones, Schumacher's business was able to fill twenty 180 lb (81.7 kg) barrels with oatmeal daily.

One of Schumacher's employees, Asmus J. Ehrrichsen had the idea to replace the millstones with rotating knife blades. This substantially reduced the amount of residue and produced a meal of uniform taste and flakiness. However, one-quarter of Schumacher's oats were still ending up as residue, a product that he could not sell. Therefore, in 1878 Schumacher purchased a set of porcelain rollers from England. By rolling the groats, the residue was virtually eliminated and the cooking time was decreased to one hour.

In nearby Ravenna, another mill, owned by Henry Parsons Crowell, William Heston, and Henry Seymour, was also selling steel-cut oats. Instead of selling them in bulk out of an open barrel, Crowell measured out two pounds and placed them in clean paper boxes with the cooking directions printed on the outside. They called their product Quaker Oats.

Raw Materials Oat grain is the only ingredient in oatmeal. The seeds of

the Avena grasses are harvested in the fall. The thinner-skinned grains are preferable as they have a high protein content without being overly starchy.

Additionally, the thin-skinned oats will yield 60% oatmeal, while the yield of thick-skinned oats is 50%. Oatmeal millers develop close relationships with their farmer-suppliers in order to insure that they receive the finest quality grain.

The grains should be milled as soon as possible thereafter to prevent spoilage or infestation of boll weevils. Rancidity is a major concern in the milling of oats. With a higher fat content than other cereal grains, the lipase enzyme can create a soapy taste. This is controlled by steaming the oats.

Cleaning and Sifting: The oats are loaded onto moving trays and washed under a high-

intensity water spray. Often the trays are perforated so that foreign material is discarded underneath.

Steaming: The cleaned oats then move to a large steamer where they are

subjected to moist heat for a predetermined length of time.Rolling or Cutting: Standard oats are those that have been steel-cut. The oats are run

through a machine with razor-sharp knife blades. Quick-cooking oats are rolled between cylinders to produce a flatter, lighter flake. These processes are usually repeated several times to produce the type of oat flake that is desired. In both processes, the hull is separated from the grain. The hulls are sifted out and used for other purposes.

Roasting: The hulled oats are then placed into a roaster where they are toasted

at a pre-set temperature for a pre-determined amount of time.Packaging: Pre-printed containers are filled with pre-measured amounts of

oatmeal. A lid is vacuum-packed onto the top of the container. The containers are then loaded into cartons for shipment.

By-Products and Waste: The oat hulls that have been removed from the grain are often used

for livestock feed and as fuel. The most common by-product of the hulls is furfural, a liquid aldehyde (dehydrogenated alcohol) that is used as a phenolic resin or as a solvent. The list of products that contain furfural include nylon, synthetic rubber, lubricating oils, pharmaceuticals, antifreeze, charcoals, textiles, plastic bottle caps, buttons, glue, and antiseptics.

Manufacturing Of Whole WheatShredded Grain

Background Wheat was generally used to produce shredded whole

wheat. It contains 6 gms of dietary fibre, 0 gms of sugar, 0 gms of cholesterol and 3 gms of sodium and 155 calories per 46 gms.

Henry perky invented shredded wheat cereals in Denver, Colorado in 1890. he developed a method of processing wheat into strips that were formed into pillow like biscuits.

He first sold his cereal to vegetarian restaurants in 1892, distributing it from a factory in Niagara falls, New York. A health oriented publication, recommended his product as use as soup croutons.

Cooking: Usually performed in batches with excess water at temperatures slightly

below the boiling point at atmospheric pressure. They have large horizontal baskets. Steam is directly injected directly into the water to heat the grain. After the cooking cycle is completed, the water is drained and the cooked wheat is dumped and conveyed to cooling units.

Cooling: The wheat is surface dried and the temperature is reduced to ambient

levels, thus stopping the cooking process. After this, they are placed in large holding bins and allowed to temper.

Shredding: Here, the wheat kernels are squeezed between one roll with a smooth

surface and another roll with a grooved surface. A comb is positioned against the grooved roll and comb teeth pick the wheat shred from the groove. There are many variations in the grooved roll.

After shreds are produced, they fall in layers onto a conveyor moving under the rolls. After shreds are produced, they fall in layers onto a a conveyor moving under the rolls.

After the web of many layers of shreds reaches the end of the shredder, it is fed through a cutting device to form the individual biscuits.

Cutting: The edges of the cutting devices are dull rather than sharp, so that

the cutting action compresses the edges of the biscuit together to form a crimped joint, which holds the shread together on a biscuit form.

Baking and Drying: After the individual biscuits are formed, they are baked in a batch

or a continuous conveyor belt oven. After the are baked and dried, they are ready for packaging.

Packaging: The packaging of these biscuits are done in an aluminium

bags which is the primary packaging and then they are put in the cartoon boxes with all the data printed on them.