Expanding Oat Opportunities

Humble oats, a long-time breakfast-bowl component, have recently emerged as a protein-packed, health-enhancing grain with multiple benefits for the human body. Oats have adapted well to the evolving breakfast-food market, featuring prominently in convenience foods such as breakfast bars and instant hot-cereal mixes.

Most oats used in U.S. and Canadian processing are grown in North America, with a small percentage imported from Finland and Sweden. Millers first clean the crop, then remove the hull from the oat kernel, or groat. All common forms of oats, whether steel-cut groats, quick flake or instant oats, or oat flour made from ground oats, are nutritionally equivalent. Oats present one of the best protein profiles among grains, with 14 to 16 grams per 100 grams. Whole-grain oats contain seven B vitamins, vitamin E and nine minerals, including iron and calcium. Oats’ total fat content of 7% to 8% (high in unsaturates) helps provide great flavor to products such as granola.

Oat bran can contain up to 50% of the kernel, compared to wheat bran, which only carries 12% to 16% of the whole kernel. Oat bran provides an excellent source of dietary fiber — 13.65 grams added to a product’s serving size provides nearly one-fifth of the recommended daily allowance. It also supplies the recommended amount of soluble fiber, from beta-glucan, to help foods containing oat bran meet USDA labeling guidelines for foods that help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

Beta is betterBeta-glucan, one of the most recently discovered benefits of oats, is the grain’s soluble fiber. Multiple scientific studies demonstrate a strong connection between beta-glucan in foods and reduced cholesterol levels. This led to an FDA-approved health claim stating that oat soluble fiber may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. To qualify for this label, a whole-oat-containing food must provide at least 0.75 grams of soluble fiber per serving.

Beta-glucan mixes with cholesterol-based bile acids in the intestines, and prevents the body from absorbing them. The fiber carries them out of the body and the liver responds, pulling cholesterol out of the bloodstream to replace cholesterol lost in the bile acids. This causes a concurrent drop in blood cholesterol levels, a health benefit for those who struggle with high cholesterol. Other studies indicate that beta-glucan could help boost the immune system by stimulating the production of white blood cells.

Breaking down breakfast barriersDespite the impressive nutritional profile, grain-industry executives agree that oats currently are viewed as strictly a breakfast-food ingredient. One limiting factor is that oats lack gluten and, therefore, cannot help baked goods rise. Wheat flour’s gluten gives structure to baked goods while acting as both a binding and absorbing agent.

According to Bill Bonner, director of technical services, ConAgra Grain Processing Co., Omaha, NE: “Oats are almost singly a breakfast-style item. People almost mature into eating them, because oats are one of the healthier food products with their combination of protein and dietary fiber.”

Trevor Pizzey, executive vice president of operations, Can-Oat Milling Inc., Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, says: “Oats are popular within their range of traditional applications. In hot or cold cereals, cookies and multi-grain breads, oats function well within their range of expectations. But we don’t have a lot of presence at the lunch or dinner table. We’re missing a big part of the day.”

However, Can-Oat aims to move oats beyond the consumer’s range of expectations and expand them into new applications. The company is working with an equipment supplier to modify oat flour’s starch characteristics to help it compete with corn starch or modified potato starch. Pizzey believes that market demand warrants the research. “With the beta-glucan health claim,” he says, “there are companies who would love to get beta-glucans into a sports drink or milk-replacement beverage. Right now, it is difficult to incorporate them without some modification to solubilize them in solution as opposed to having them in suspension. But with a modified starch, you could use oats in beverages or in dough sheets.” Snack foods present another challenge. Oats have a higher fat content than either corn or rice, and formulators have to use higher heat to cook out the starches. Pizzey states that a modified starch could open up multiple opportunities for manufacturers to use oats in various snack applications, as well.

Some companies have introduced the power of oat’s beta-glucan content into new food products. For example, American Oats, Inc., Minneapolis, produces Oats Crème®, a dairy-free soft-serve frozen dessert in three flavors. It contains 0.75 grams of beta-glucan per serving.

A formula of consistencyWhether food technologists serve up old-fashioned oatmeal or want to introduce new oat products to the market, millers can help smooth out their formulation tangles. “When formulating instant oatmeal, for example, companies are looking for smooth texture, not a runny or gummy product,” says Pizzey. “As a miller, we work extensively with customers to help modify their ingredients.”

In granola, flakes for cookies, or a meal-type product such as a breakfast bar, water absorption is critical. In the thin dough used in a fruit-filled bar, if the dough is too dry, it will crack; too wet, and it will stick to the machinery.

Consistency is another quality manufacturers need from millers. “Oats can be very different — by variety, source and year,” says Dan Lewandowski, technology director, General Mills, Minneapolis. “In general, the western prairie Canadian oat crop is relatively uniform in most key quality traits, making Canadian oats an excellent choice for food applications.”

This need for constant quality is not lost on ingredient suppliers. “Formulators need oats that behave in a consistent manner and we can help sort out the right oat ingredient for the right application,” concludes Pizzey.

Jeanne Turner is a freelance writer with more than 10 years of experience writing about the functional properties of food ingredients.