CEREAL FOOD SCIENCES

Food fortification in cereal

2012-01-25T05:21:00.001-08:00

Food fortification may be broadly defined as the addition of one or more essential nutrients to a food, whether or not it is normally contained in the cereal, for the purpose to maintain, improve or enhance the quality of a diet consumed by the population or specific population groups.

Cereal fortification refers to the fortification of the main cereal staple in refuge ration with essential micronutrients by the mixing in of a vitamin/mineral pre-mix at the time of milling grain to meal.

Folic fortification of cereal products has proved effective in decline of neural tube defects. A neural tube defect is a an anomaly of the central nervous system and/or its membranes, resulting either from faulty neurulation or from abnormal development do the neural tube during the early postneurulation period.

Fortification was determined to be the best strategy for increasing blood folate levels, as the critical period for adequate intake of folic acid is in the first weeks of pregnancy before most women known that they are pregnant.

Wheat and wheat products, corn, rice and breakfast cereals are the coon food vehicles that can be fortified. The benefits of fortification can extend over the entire life cycle of humans. It can thus be one of the most cost effective means of overcoming micronutrient malnutrition.

For decades the United States and many countries have been fortifying their cereal products with thiamin, riboflavin and niacin.

Food fortification in cereal

Cereal bars

2012-01-21T08:02:00.001-08:00

Cereal bars are presented in the conventional countlines format and size and are characterized by consisting predominantly of cereal, nuts and fruit. It is convenience foods of increasing popularity as regular and calorie-low sources of nutrients and dietary fiber to reduce obesity related health problems.

Cereal bars were among the most popular, catering to those who missed breakfast and also those who simply wanted a sweet snack that provided a healthy alternative to the traditional candy bar.

Over the years cereal bars have evolved from the original hard and crunchy to soft and chewy and finally to chocolate covered soft and chewy products which closely resemble standard chocolate countlines.

The idea of cereal bars was occurred to adopt the shape of a different product that consumers were used to: chocolate bars. Cereal bars was born when the concepts of cereal and chocolate bars merged.

Cereals are produced using cereal flakes, nuts, dried fruit pieces, chocolate flakes and various other ingredients. Cereal bars often coated with chocolate or a milk powder/fat milk.

Cereal bars

Bacillus cereus Food Poisoning

2012-01-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

Bacillus cereus is a gram positive, spore forming, motile, aerobic rod that also grows well anaerobically.

Bacillus cereus like Clostridium perfringes is present in the environment and requires large numbers of bacterial cells to cause infection.

Bacillus cereus has been known to be cause of food poisoning since the early 1950s.

It has two major strains: one causes diarrhea within six to fifteen hours of consumption of tainted food; the other ‘emetic syndrome’ causes nausea and vomiting within a half hour to six hours after ingestion.

The diarrheal type is often misdiagnosed as C. perfringes and the type that causes nausea and vomiting is often mistaken as Staphylococcus aureus infection.

The diarrheal type of food poisoning is caused by complex enterotoxin during vegetative growth of Bacillus cereus in the small intestine.

While the other one emetic toxin is preformed during the growth of cells in the foods. Diarrhea is not a predominant feature in this type of illness.

A wide variety of foods can harbor the bacteria.

The diarrheal type favors meats, milk, vegetables and fish, while the vomiting type illness is most often associated with rice products such as fried rice, but it can also occur in starchy foods like potatoes, pasta and casseroles.

The diarrheagenic toxin is inactivated by heating for 5 min at 50 degree C, although its thermostabiltiy is reported to be greater.

Both types of illness are generally not serious, except in young children, older adults and others who are immune compromised and may not have the stamina to combat the associated dehydration.

Recovery for Bacillus cereus food poisoning is normally within 24 hours, with no complications.
Bacillus cereus Food Poisoning

Cleaning of the grain

2012-01-14T23:43:00.000-08:00

Cleaning is accomplished by:
*Screening out the larger particles with the chaffer and sieves
*Blowing out the lighter particles with a fan blast, or
*Screening out the smaller particles in a recleaner

The impact of grain breakage and fine materials on all aspects of the system has resulted in the need to clean grain.

The modern combine harvester produces remarkably clean grain compared with the manual and partially mechanized processes.

Cleaning decreases the airflow resistance, increases airflow, and increases the cooling rate of the grain if aeration is used.

For good storage the chaff, dust and straw must be removed. Broken and foreign grains should not be present: the former encourage insect attack, the latter lower market value.

Broken grains, grain dust and other fine grains have the greatest effect in the performance of insect control interventions.

A typical grain cleaner, often called a scalperator or scalping machine, consist of two parts, a shaking screen and a fan, driven from the same more. Straw and other large objects are removed by screening and the dust and other lightweight material are blown out by aspiration.

The amount of grain cleaning required prior to storage involves the factors of risk to grain deterioration as a result of mold and insect invasions and the costs associated with maintaining quality.

Cleaning of the grain

Amino acid in cereal

2012-01-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

By definition, the term ‘cereal’ applies strictly to those genre and species of the grass family – Gramineae) that have been domesticated for food and feed production, most often as seed products.

Cereals protein in general are low in the amino acids tryptophan and methionine and lysine, but most cereals contain the essential amino acids required by humans, as well as vitamins and minerals. Oats have higher levels of indispensable (essential) amino acid and are thus nutritionally superior to other cereal.

Cereal proteins are characterized in two ways, by determination of amino acid composition and by the relative proportions of the fractions characterized by solubility and other criteria.

Barley, sorghum, rye and oat proteins have lower digestibilities (77-88 percent) than those of rice, maize, and wheat (95-100 percent).

The biological value and net protein utilization of cereal proteins is relatively low due to deficiencies in essential amino acids and low protein availability.

All cereal products are deficient in the amino acid lysine, but the deficiency may be greater in ready to eat cereals than in bread because of the changes that occur in the protein at the high temperature treatment.

Amino acid in cereal

The bushel

2011-12-31T09:32:00.001-08:00

Grains vary greatly in bulkiness. The differences largely depend on whether the grains emerge from the thresher encased in the hull or free from it.

The bulk volume of grain must be known when designing any storage system. This is expressed in several ways, although the metric system is gradually becoming the most common.

Bulkiness of grain is referred to as its test weight. In the United States it is measured in pounds per measured bushels.

By volume this is 64 dry pints or 2150.42 cubic inches.

A bushel of grain is defined as a specified weight of crop at 13% W.B moisture, except for a shelled corn bushel, which is defined at 15.5% W.B. The wet basis moisture percentage relates the mass of water per unit to the mass of the units.

In United States, the legal weight per bushel is 60 pounds for wheat, 56 pounds for corn and rye and 48 and 32 pounds for barley and oats, respectively.

The bushel

Nutrition value of rye

2011-12-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

Rye has some advantages over wheat because of the higher content of dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytoestrogens and lysine in rye.

It is generally consumed as whole grain products. Rye (Secale cereal.L) is a traditional, although not very widely used, raw material for baking.

Rye flour is not significantly higher in oil than wheat flour. However, because it is higher in polyunsaturated fatty acids, rye oil oxidized more easily, producing rancid off flavors.

Compared with wheat, rye generally contains less starch and crude protein but more dietary fiber.

The major dietary fiber constituents of rye are arabinoxylan, B-glucan, cellulose, lignin and fructan.

One of the nutritional benefits of rye is the presence of fibrous complex carbohydrates called pentosans that may reduce certain types of cancer and heart disease.

Rye has an energy value intermediate to that of wheat and barley and the protein content is similar to that of barley and oats. Although the amino acids balance is similar to that of barley and wheat, its amino acids digestively is 5-10% lower.

Nutrition value of rye

Corn Belt in United States

2011-12-15T23:21:00.000-08:00

Corn Belt is a region of the Midwestern United States where corn has, since the 1850s, has been the predominant crop, replacing the native tall grasses. This region has dominated American farming for the past century.

The Corn Belt includes the prairie plains from Ohio westward through Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska.

Most corn is fed to livestock, especially hogs and poultry. It produces about 70% of the US corn crop and includes the top five corn producing states in the USA: Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota and Indiana.

In the heart of the Corn Belt, the state of Iowa alone accounted for more than 16% of US corn and soybean export value.

Booms and busts periodically been common in Corn Belt history. New technology to increase agriculture production now seems to lie more in the era of genetic research than it does with larger machines or more powerful agrochemicals.

Despite giving it’s the name to the region, corn was never the only crop grown. Rather, it formed part of a triangular feed crop rotation, with small grains and hay, the products of which were marketed “on the hoof” as high quality pork and beef.

Corn Belt agriculture today is oriented towards corn, soybean and meat production.
Corn Belt in United States

Rolled oats

2011-12-12T05:33:00.001-08:00

Oats are a plump, pale, delicious, high protein grain, and they are easy to grow in any northern climate. Rolled oats made from the best quality of large oats with the hulls removed.

Rolled oats can be added with milk and a handful of raisins and have very good instant food or cook them briefly for a quick hot bowl, of oatmeal.

Oat milling took a great step forward with the invention of a groat-cutting machine by Ehrrichsen in 1877.

Ehrrichsen was employed in an oatmeal mill owned by Ferdinand Schumacher, of Akron, Ohio, who was the known as the oats meal King and later was one of the founders of The Quaker Oats Company.

Schumacher installed new technology in his mills where oats processing to be much less time than whole or steel cuts oats.

In this new technique, steel cut oats that have been steamed, rolled, resteamed and toasted. It means that rolled oats are made from grain that has been infused with steam and rolled flat between two smooth rolls. The moisture from the steam keeps the grain from fracturing while it is being rolled.

While quick cooking rolled oats are made by cutting each groats into several thin pieces before steaming and rolling.

Quick cooking rolled oats require less time cooking because water penetrates the thin pieces faster.

The rolled oats flakes are cooled in a current of air to about 110 °F. following which the product is immediately weighed and packed by automatic mechanical equipment.

Rolled oats

All purpose flour

2011-12-03T07:27:00.001-08:00

All-purpose flour combines the desirable qualities of both hard and soft wheat flour. It does not contain bran or germ and is known as white wheat flour, or simply ‘flour’.

To make flour pure white, it is treated chemically with chlorine dioxide, benzoyl peroxide and acetone peroxide.

It forms less strong and elastic dough than bread flour and it may be enriched or bleached. All purpose flour contains slightly less protein than unbleached.

Many bakers prefer to use bleached flour for cakes, cookies and pastries because they say the result are more delicate.

As its name implies, can be used for many purposes, including baking, thickening and coating. All purpose flour usually is sold pre-sifted and is available bleached or unbleached.

All purpose flour is a blend of flours and each company has its own trademark style and protein content for its all purpose flour.
All purpose flour

Cereal Extrusion Technology

2011-11-25T07:29:00.001-08:00

Breakfast cereal manufacturing was one of the earliest commercial applications of extrusion cooking and remains one of the most widespread.

The application of extrusion technology is one of the most economic processes, being used increasingly in the food industry for the development of new products such as breakfast cereals and modified starch from cereals.

Cereals flour and other starchy materials are widely used as raw materials in the production of many extruded product. The physical of cereals fluids developed within an extruder and their extrudates are predominantly due to the starch component present, which usually represents between 50% and 80% of the dry solids.

The extrusion-cooking unit thermo-mechanically cooks breakfast cereal mixes to generate the right functional properties of the resulting melt according to the quality profile of the final products.

Chemical and structural transformation in foods during extrusion cooking determine the quality of the extruded products.

A few studies have been reported in extrusion cooking increased the availability of protein and other nutrients in the grain.

Extrusions processes are typically high temperature and high pressure for short time durations. This results in products with limited heat treatments that have nearly all the nutritional attributes of the raw materials remaining in the final products.
Cereal Extrusion Technology

Nutrition of corn

2011-11-20T17:54:00.001-08:00

Corn is grown all over the world. The United States produces nearly half the world’s harvest. It has been a important nutritional resource for thousands of years because of its high protein and carbohydrate content.

Many people like cornflakes for breakfast, others enjoy corn bread and muffins, some like hominy, to say nothing of other interesting corn products used in cooking such as corn oil, corn syrup and cornstarch.

Corn provides protein and food energy in the form of carbohydrates and it contributes significant amounts of fiber, vitamin C, vitamin B6, niacin, thiamine and folate.

It also supplies the antioxidants lutein and zeathanthin, needed for healthy vision.

There are more than 200 varieties of corn. All are considered to be good spruces of vitamin C but only yellow kernel contain small amounts of vitamin A in the form of beta carotene.

For many people, corn is still used as an important source of nutrients, including protein.

Although not a complete protein, it is still easily complemented with other protein sources, and so makes useful nutritional contribution.

In addition , corn supplies some important phytonutrients including several antioxidant compounds.
Nutrition of corn

Grain physical properties important to storage and transport

2011-11-10T19:31:00.001-08:00

The cereals are traded internationally as whole grains or as final rather than intermediate products. These include pasta foods and high value products containing cereals.

Therefore it is important the physical properties of cereals in order to predict grain pressure packing behavior and flow behavior include bulk density of the grain, the ratio of lateral to vertical pressure, the internal angle of friction and the coefficient of friction of grain on the bin wall.

For successful storage it is important to avoid excessive temperature, high moisture, predation by insects and other invertebrates. The important points of cereals properties for storage include:
*The soft floury endosperm. This favored by weevils as being a more easily eaten food that the vitreous endosperm. Hard vitreous grains are more denser and more difficult for insect to penetrate.

*The embryo. If this has been damaged at threshing or during handling, the inherent enzymes will break down the fat, leading to off-flavors in foods made from the grains.

*Size and shape of the grains. Small grains less than around 12 g per 1000 grains are not attacked by weevils.

Insect infestation deteriorated grain quality, Nutritional value in terms of thiamin content decreased in infested wheat together with changes in physiochemical properties including weight, density, increased uric acid and fat acidity increased moisture content and changes in crude fat, calorific value, true proteins, ash, crude proteins, crude fiber and non- protein.

The physical properties vary in the same way as the composition. In addition, harvesting, handling, storage and abuses during movement of grain from storage cause significant changes.

Storage can be for varying lengths of time, ranging from short term storage on farm for drying and waiting for advantages market iodations to long term storage for strategic reserves.

Grain ages during storage and changes it properties significantly, which means that processing properties change.
Grain physical properties important to storage and transport

Protein in wheat

2011-11-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Wheat is supreme among cereals largely because its grain contains proteins with unique chemical and physical properties.

Wheat has achieved its position as a basic food crop as a result of a number of attributes, not the least of which is the unique capacity of its protein to from an elastic, cohesive mass when mixed with water.

Wheat kernel consist of three main parts; bran, germ and endosperm. The endosperm is the white, starchy part of the kernel that remains when the bran and germ are removed.

Depending on its source, the wheat endosperm contains about 68 to 76% starch and 6 to 18% protein. In white floor proteins act as binding agents that hold the starch granulates together in the endosperm.

About 80% of the protein the protein in flour are called glutenin and gliadin. These two protein, when combined with water and mixed in a dough, form an elastic substance called gluten.

Gluten exhibits plasticity, strength, and elasticity, which means that it is capable of deformation when placed under pressure, that it tends to resists that deformation and that it tends to reassume its original form when pressure is released.

Other proteins present in white flour are enzymes, most importantly amylase also called diastase. This enzyme breakdown starch into simple sugars, which important for yeast fermentation.

Wheat protein are classified according to their extractability and solubility in various solvents:
*Albumin – soluble in water
*Globulin – insoluble in pure water but soluble in dilute NaCl solution and insoluble at high NaCl concentration
*Gliadin – soluble in 70% ethyl alcohol
*Gutenin – soluble in dilute acid or sodium hydroxide solutions.

Celiac disease is an immune disorder in which the body creates antibodies to gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains. The resulting inflammation damages the surface of the intestinal wall, eventually causing the villi (fingerlike projections important for absorption) to become ‘flattened in appearance.

Protein levels in wheat are an important factors in determining hard red spring wheat prices and particularly for hard red spring grown in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. High protein commands higher prices in the market.
Protein in wheat

Barley Health Benefits

2011-10-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

The major nutritional components of the mature kernel are carbohydrates (starch, sugars, and fiber), protein (amino acids), lipids (fatty acids), and ash (minerals).

The chief benefits of barley is provided by its fiber components. Like oat bran barley’s dietary fiber is high in beta-glucan, which helps lower cholesterol by binding to bile acids and removing them from the body via the feces.

The soluble fiber also helps manage blood glucose.

Barley is excellent food for the anemic and nervous on account of its richness in iron and phosphoric acid.

In Neolithic times the grain was cooked, crushed and pounded into a nutritious milk that built strong bones – barley is now recognized to be important for osteoporosis due to its high calcium and potassium content.

It is also useful in fevers and all inflammatory diseases, on account of its soothing properties. From the earliest times barley water has been the recognized drink of the sick.

In cooking barley meal is best used as a thickening base for soups. Barley meal may also be added to soups to thicken them. Races that lives on barley are noted for their health and vigor.
Barley Health Benefits

Wheat composition

2011-10-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Wheat is an important agricultural commodity and a popular food ingredient worldwide. Wheat grains are ovoid in shape, rounded at both ends. The germ is at one end and a tuft of fine hair at the other.

Wheat grains contain three parts: the germ, the kernel or endosperm or floury endosperm and envelopes and integuments forming the bran.

The bran is the protective covering of the grain.

The chemical composition of the wheat kernel varies widely, being influenced by precipitation, environment, soil, and variety and to a degree, the milling process, classes of wheat from which the flour or bran is milled and use of fertilizers.

Wheat varies in chemical composition. Percentages of protein, minerals, vitamins, pigments, and enzymes show up to a 5 fold among cargoes of wheat.

The germ is rich in oil and proteins. The endosperm consists mainly of starch 80% and proteins 12%.

The major carbohydrate component in wheat is the starch which provides an excellent source of energy. The unique physicochemical properties of starch impart particular properties to various types of foods. The starch content of the wheat between 64% to 70%, with their fiber content between 0.6% and 2.0%.

The sugars and glucofructans found in the endosperm of wheat are present as a minor component with values of 1-2% by weight.

The protein content of wheat varies widely. Hard spring wheat may have 15 to 16% protein, hard winter wheat 13 to 14% and soft wheat 10-14%. Wheat and wheat products are relatively low in protein and it quality is also low.

Amino acid composition of protein mainly stipulates its structure and physic-chemical proteins and consequently, it influence technological properties of wheat.
Wheat composition

Minerals in wheat

2011-10-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

The amount of minerals present in a wheat sample often varies among cultivars and growing environments. Minerals from a small part of the wheat kernel, and an even smaller proportion of the endosperm- less than 1%.

Even the minerals in wheat kernel are not uniformly distributed; rather, they are concentrated in the area close to the bran coat and in bran itself. It is the aleurone layer that is the primary domain of wheat minerals.

Phytin crystals are not found in any other bran structure by the aleurone cells. Aleurone is the layer between the bran and the endosperm.

Major constituents of the mineral fraction are the phosphates and sulfates of potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Some of the phosphate is present in the form of phytic acid.

Phytic acid can combine with certain minerals – such as calcium, zinc, and iron – to form indigestible compounds, thereby limiting the body’s intake of these minerals and possibly leading to deficiency.

One report shows the following ranges, in mg per kg, for wheat: iron 18-31, copper 1.8-6.2, manganese., 24-37, and selenium 0.04 – 0.71.

Sodium in wheat is present at a level of only about 80 ppm and is considered a trace element in this case. Hard wheat generally contains more of these elements than soft wheat.
Minerals in wheat

Fiber and Weight Loss

2011-10-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Fiber is the structural component of plants. It’s a very complex carbohydrate that cannot be digested.

It is now recognized that an addition of fiber to the diet, especially soluble and semi-soluble fibers offer many health benefits.

It is aid that to get the optimal benefit of fiber’s weight loss and disease fighting power, aim for at least 25 – 30 grams of fiber a day.

There was a study shows that an additional 14 grams per day of fiber resulted in a 10 percent decreased in calorie intake and a weight loss of nearly five founds over a four months period.

The bulk of fiber gives a physical sensation of fullness that helps to control how much is eaten at a given meal. Where as appetite is reduced directly by the bulk of fiber, it is reduced indirectly though the delayed emptying of the stomach.

Dietary fiber takes longer time to chew and eat, fills up, and satisfies the hunger, without excessive calorie consumption. High fiber diets may also reduce the amount of calories absorbed from the food that is eaten.

Foods with fiber tend to stay in the stomach a little longer, which is why oatmeal makes a hearty breakfast that staves off hunger for hours. Because don’t feel hungry as often, fiber is a great weight loss tool as well.

Grains have the most content of fiber. The best sources of fiber are concentrated grain products and whole grains.
Fiber and Weight Loss

Modern History of Breakfast Cereal

2011-10-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

During the American Civil War, Union soldiers were glad to get a hot breakfast cereals, especially when they were in the march or cut off from supply trains.

Cooks used foodstuff on hand to make, panada, a hot breakfast gruel affectionately known as ‘bully soup,’ which the main ingredients were watery corn meal and crumbled hardtack, both of which were standard issue.

The early history of cereal breakfast originated out of the an interest in health foods that can be traced to the 1830s, and specifically to the experiments carried out from the the 1860s by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the pioneer nutritionist, at the sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan.

The modern breakfast cereals, however, are entirely precooked and eaten in cold milk. The first precooked cereal was probably invented in 1863 by Dr. James C. Jackson at Dansville, New York.

Jackson named his invention as granula.

Ganula, was the first cold breakfast cereal. It consisted id a twice baked wholemeal biscuit ground into crumbs, which had to be soaked on milk or water to make it even vaguely palatable.

In 1877, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg created a similar cereal called granola, but not until his invention of corn flakes in 1902 did cereal become a commercial success. At first, most cereals were marketed as pure, whole-grain foods.

In 1894 Kellogg created the first flaked cereal, Granose and in 1898, the corn flake.

Eventually, however, competition resulted in the addition of sugar and other food additives and in marketing campaigns directed at children, such as the inclusion of a premium or toy in the box.

By late 1905, the corn flake business was booming and other cereal manufacturers had gotten into this line. In January 1906, Post Cereals introduced a new version of the corn flakes.

It was C. W Post, the founder of Post Cereals who first clearly comprehend that convenience and flavor were more forceful and more widely appreciated advantages than were the healthfulness and vegetable origin previously relied upon as selling points by producers of these foods.

Now over 75% of breakfast cereals are ready to eat type made from wheat, corn, or oats .
Modern History of Breakfast Cereal

Lipid in Wheat

2011-10-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

The lipid fraction is a minor component of the wheat grain, constituting about 3%-4% of whole grain weight, and even less (1%-2.5% by weight) in the endosperm.

A wheat kernel weigh 30-42 mg and contains 0.92-1.24 ug of lipid. The germ and the aleurone cells are rich in triglycerides which are present as spherosomes, while phospholipids and glycolipids predominate in the endosperm.

The lipids are a useful source on n-6 and n-3 types of polyunsaturated fatty acids, a wheat germ is exceptionally rich in vitamin E tocopherols.

Free fatty acids, simple glycerides, galactosyglycerides, phosphoglycerides, sterol lipids, sphingolipids, diol lipids, tocopherol, carotenoids, wax esters and hydrocarbons are among the lipids found in wheat kernels.

The principle glyceride in wheat is triglyceride, with minor amounts of diglyceride and monoglyceride.

Flour lipids play an important role in the dough-mixing and baking processes. They interact and form complexes with gluten protein and contribute to the stabilization of gas-cell structure, thus having significant effects on loaf and on final texture.

Some oxidation of lipids by wheat lipoxygenase occurs in dough, but more important oxidations resulting in dough improvement require soya lipoxygenase, and both contribute to the oxygen requirement of the dough.
Lipid in Wheat

Breadmaking flour

2011-10-08T06:30:00.000-07:00

The baking quality of a flour determines its technological properties. The baking value of a flour is an indication of its ability to produce attractive and good tasting bread under optimal production condition and with the best yield.

This flour is made from the endosperm of the wheat kernel. It can be used together with all-purpose flour, if the dough kneaded by machine.

The baking quality of flour is related to the quality and quantity of proteins and of the gluten that derives from them.

Bread flour typically is milled from hard red spring wheat kernels, with high protein-to-starch ratio, and is capable of holding a lot of water – 2 cups flour holds 1 cup water. It can produce the largest loaves of any flour, because it has a high amount of protein.

Protein becomes gluten and forms an interlocking network of elastic strands that trap the gas produced by yeast, causing the dough to rise.

Hard spring wheat has a greater protein than hard winter wheat. Gluten flour is made from spring wheat that has been milled in such a way to retain the gluten. It may contain 40-45% protein.
Breadmaking flour

Grain storage during ancient Egypt

2011-09-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

Storage is the intermediate stage between cereal production and processing and its distribution and consumption.

By ancient Egypt times grain storage and progress from the simple family store to large state-run systems.

The dry climate of Egypt would have indeed allowed farmers to bulk process their harvest communally to the clean grain stage prior storage.

Even without the sophisticated equipment that is available today, grain storage proved remarkably non-problematical in ancient Egypt, although infestation was always a potential problem.

Some of these have been excavated: they were made of dried clay bricks or baked bricks and had domed roofs.

It was the system that was almost certainly used by Joseph, he gathered in the grain of the seven good years before the seven famine years and thus with careful rationing, prevented starvation.

At that time the system was highly organized, hierarchal system of grain storage, which for the most part was successful in feeding population, even during the lean years.

Grain was stored at national, regional, local and household levels.

The state would have to collect and manage surpluses and meet local as well as central needs in case of any difficulty.

Archeological evidence indicates that large storage facilities were attached to temples and palaces.
Grain storage during ancient Egypt

Milling of Cereal

2011-09-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

The objective of cereal milling is to remove the bran and germ from the seed and to free the endosperm. This left whole as in rice milling, ground into coarse pieces (wheat semolina, maize grits) or milled into flour.

Since prehistoric times up to the middle of the 19th century, cereal grains were ground in small mills, driven by hand, wind or water power.

The process of milling wheat into flour was revolutionized around 800 BC in Mesopotamia, when animal, water and wind power were harnessed for the first time to run the large stones used for grinding.

In ancient Rome the mill and the bakery were the very same enterprise. The grain were milled and worked up without delay to dough and bread.

The flour ground in such a mill was whole grain flour, because the complete cereal grains poured into the mill on top, came out out as flour at the bottom.

Probably the most ancient technique involves the grinder rocking backwards and forwards while grasping an ellipsoid stone in both hands which crushes the grain within a larger concave stone suits in front of the grinder.

Both upper and lower stone are usually made from a hard igneous rock such as granite or basalt to avoid the production of stone in the grinding process.

Around the Mediterranean and possibly also in China during the first half of the first millennium BC, there were two sophisticated versions of the handmill the hopper-rubber and the lever mill.

Moving to the milling process proper, it was in 1878 that Henry Simon took 19 British millers, to Hungary to view the all steel rollermill invention.

This machine became the heart of what is known as the gradual reduction system, commonly used.
Milling of Cereal

The cultivation of oats

2011-09-19T07:01:00.001-07:00

Oats were one of the first cereals cultivated by man. They were to be found growing in ancient China as long ago as 7000 BC while the Greeks are believed to be the first to make porridge from oats.

Oats were known to the Romans and Greeks, but there is no evidence that they cultivated this grain. Oats were used, however, by the ancient people north of the Roman empire in what is now Switzerland, France and Germany.

The oats is a hardy plant especially well adapted for temperate climates. It yields a nutritious gain, besides straw that is held to be worth rather more as fodder than the straw of most other cereals.

Today there are many varieties of oats which have evolved from the original Asian wild grass (Avena Fatua). The best quality oats grow where there is light fertile soil, where the climate is temperate and there is a rainfall of over 60cm (24") a year.

In the USA, oat is the most popular cool season forage in the Northern Great Plains, i.e., North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Montana.

The cultivation of oats is traditionally associated with dairying, particularly in Minnesota and Wisconsin, providing good straw and silage.

Oat grains are sown in the winter and ripened in the fields by the summer sun. The oats are then harvested when fully ripe in the autumn.

In the corn belt area, oats are chiefly used as a additional fodder.

In United Kingdom, oats also used to make bread and sometimes for malting as well. Their main purpose was to make oatmeal concoctions, such as pottage, hasty pudding, gruel, washbrew, and gertbrew, which provided starch in the diet in more varied forms than oat bread and oat cake.

Oat grain has an average protein content of 11.5 percent compared with 12.5-13 percent for barley.
The cultivation of oats

Healthy benefits of rye

2011-09-17T04:03:00.001-07:00

Rye (Secale cereal L.) is a traditional, although not very widely used, raw material for baking. It is used in bread loves often flavored with caraway seeds.

Rye is a hardy field grass that grew on the edges of the wheat fields in southern Europe and parts of Asia.

Statistics show that cereals have become very popular among population in recent years, which has only positive effects upon people's health. But people should become aware of the fact that underestimated whole grains such as rye has multiple health benefits, too.

Producers can benefit from incorporating these types of whole grains because they can be easily preserved even in bad conditions, such as a dry or cold medium.

Rye flour is good for those watching their intake of food, because it expands in the stomach, giving a feeling or fullness so to eat less. It is also good for energy and endurance.

Rye is a good source of dietary fiber, phenolic compounds, vitamins, trace elements and minerals, as it is generally consumed as whole grain products.

Especially it its sprouted form, rye is rich in vitamin E, phosphorus, magnesium and silicon.
Healthy benefits of rye