Oatmeal is produced in two ways: it is made from whole oats (cereal oats) or from refined oatmeal. The second technological process is shorter and simpler. When receiving flakes from whole grains, the process includes the following operations: the grain is prepared for crumbling (grinding), from which cereal is obtained, which is processed into flakes.
Preparation
Before dehulling, oats are cleaned of debris and other grain impurities using a separator. Then the oats undergo sorting (grain sieving), where small, large and medium grains are separated from each other. For oatmeal, only coarse grains are used. Oatmeal is made from the middle, and the smallest is spent on the production of fodder for animal feed.
Further, large grains are washed in a special grain washing machine. Then they are sent to the steamer, where it is treated with steam for about two minutes at a temperature above + 100 ° C. This is done to make it easier to separate the grain from the husk. Processing at high temperatures also deactivates the enzymes that contribute to the rancidity of the fat contained in cereal oats, which increases the shelf life of the finished oatmeal.
After steaming, the grain is sent for drying. As it dries, the shell deforms and then the oats are sent back to sorting, this time to separate the husk from the kernel.
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The caving takes place on emery machines. Next, the groats are passed through another unit to separate the husk and flour dust. Then they are sorted again in a separator, removing fines and crushed cereals. Raw materials for flakes are taken from the sieve, in which a whole high-quality crumbled grain remains.
Before flattening the cereal, it is once again cleaned of dust and remnants of the husk, passed through a magnet to separate random metal impurities, then through a paddy machine to completely remove the remnants of unbroken cereals.
Flattening
As a result of all these operations, no more than 0.5% of impurities should remain in the croup. This is the permissible rate at which the cereal goes for further processing. It is steamed again for two to three minutes and kept for about half an hour in a special bunker, increasing the moisture content to 12.5%. Wet groats crumble better and crumble less. During the second steaming, the starch contained in the cereal is gelatinized, which contributes to the good absorption of the final product by the body - oat flakes.
The last stage - the oatmeal is flattened on a machine that has rolls rotating at the same speed. The thickness of the finished flakes after flattening is no more than 0.4 mm. They are once again passed through the apparatus for separating garbage and husks, cooled, dried and packed in boxes or bags.
