Cereals & Grains Association
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Oats—It’s not just for breakfast anymore: New products from oats
P. J. WHALEN (1). (1) Oat Tech Incorporated, Rapid City, SD, U.S.A.

Oats are an incredibly nutritious food yet they have limited applications in human foods, primarily used in RTE breakfast cereals, oatmeal, granola bars, and cookies. Oats also have a hearty, ‘good-for-you’ image. However, they are a challenge to work with because of how the proteins, starch, lipids & fiber are structured in the kernel. Oats do not separate into different functional streams when milled. Thus, all oat flours contain fractions of the grain that interfere with crucial properties to make baked products & other foods. Oats have the best amino acid content of all the common cereal grains & contain nutriceuticals compounds like β-glucans & antioxidants. At Oat Tech Inc., we have gone well beyond the traditional uses for oats and successfully made natural sweeteners, high protein powder and other products in a natural, non-chemical process. OatSweet syrup contains many of the nutrients from the original oat yet performs on a one-to-one basis with corn or rice syrups in most applications. OatSweet has a flavor profile that is devoid of the grain flavor defect. It is very sweet, with a clean profile, a slight caramel/ honey flavor, creamy texture, and, clears off the palate well with no aftertaste or burn. Applications as a sweetener include cereals, coatings, breads, desserts, ice cream, granola bars, confections, and beverages to name a few. Our Oat Protein 55 is a bland, slightly sweet powder with an average protein content of 55%. The amino acid content is excellent and PDCAAS score high with a little lysine added. It is excellent as a protein supplement in cereal products such as bars, RTE’s, clusters, beverages, etc. Our approach yields numerous opportunities for many more applications of oats in food.

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