Usage of oats

Oats (Avena sativa L.) have received considerable attention for their high content of dietary fibers, phytochemicals and nutritional value. It is believed that consumption of oats possesses various health benefits such as hypocholesterolaemic and anticancerous properties. Oat grains are a good source of protein, fibre, and minerals.

In the Corn Belt area, oats are chiefly used as a additional fodder. Oat is predominantly grown in American and European countries, mainly Russia, Canada and United States of America. It is used mostly for animal feeding and to some extent as human food. The use of oat as animal feed has declined steadily owing to emerging use and interest in oats as human health food.

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.

Usage of oats

Uses of oats

Oats are a crop of Mediterranean origin, not as old as wheat and barley but their domestication dates back to ancient times. Oats rank around sixth in the world cereal production statistics following wheat, maize, rice, barley and sorghum.

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.

Food uses for oats include as oat bran, oat meal, oat flour and oat flakes, which are mainly consumed as breakfast cereals. 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.

Other food products processed from oats are infant foods, muesli, granola bars, breads and biscuits, or cookies. In brewing, oats are mainly used as an ingredient to improve the pleasant flavour properties of the final products.

The food industry in North America uses approximately 1.7 million tons of oats while a major share goes to livestock feed industries. Oats still remain an important grain crop for people in marginal ecologies throughout the developing world, and in developed economies for specialized uses. Oat grains are a good source of protein, fibre, and minerals. Oat grains are a good source of protein, fibre, and minerals.
Uses of oats

Barley for human consumption

Together with wheat, rye and several important forages, like Russian wildrye and crested wheatgrass, barley belongs to the tribe Triticeae.

Barley is “winter hardy” and is able to survive in the frost of cold climates. It is used as a cooked cereal, or a hull of the kernel is removed by abrasion to create pearled barley (commonly used in soup).

Additionally, barley may be incorporated into breads pilafs of stuffing, or it may be used for malt production.

Production of malting barley ranks second after animal feed. It requires high quality grains that are not easy to produce everywhere but maintains or even increases its central position to supply the malting industry’s requirements.

In order to create malt, the barley grain is soaked in water to sprout the germ, and produce an enzyme that hydrolysis (break down) starch to a shorter carbon chain, maltose.

Maltose is then used to feed yeast and produce CO, and ethyl alcohol, since it is fermentable carbohydrate.

The alcohol and CO2 are important for brewing alcoholic beverages and for baking.

Dried malt is used in a variety of products including brewed, baked products, breakfast cereal, candies or malted milks.

Barley is one of the most healthful cereal grains human eat. Beta glycan type of fiber found in the barley kernel delivers a host of positive benefits to the human body.

Consumer following a gluten-free diet must avoid malt and should read ingredients labels to determine whether malt is an ingredient of a particular food product.

Medical researchers from all over the world have determined that a diet rich in barley greatly reduces plasma cholesterol and other blood lipids, and because of the unique qualities of its starch barley consumption also helps individuals maintain lowered blood sugar levels.

Barley is often used in animal feed – for pigs and cattle (not poultry beverage barely is a grain lower in starch than other grains such as wheat or corn). Its importance as an animal feed has increased over the years and barley is now one of the most important feed crops in temperate areas.
Barley for human consumption

Oats cereal

The botanical name Avena sativa can be translated to ‘cultivated oats.’ Oats has been cultivated for over 5,000 years.

The oils in oats cause them to become rancid, so they must be processed more quickly than other grains. Steaming of oats will inactivate powerful lipase enzymes that could cause the oil in oats to oxidize and produce off flavors.

Today, the primary use of oats is as animal feed. Still, with the pressure of advertising, we are all aware of the nutritional value of oats in our diet. Oats have a higher level of soluble fiber than all other grains.

Among the benefits of oats in the diet, is the value that they have in lowering cholesterol, are soothing to the digestive process.

Oats can be used in soups, puddings, breads, crusts, topping and desserts.

There are a number of different ways that oats processed for cooking pleasure. Oat groats are the whole seed with only the outer hull removed. They are cleaned, dried and toasted to make the hulls brittle, then the two outer layers of the hull are removed.

It can be pounded with a wooden mallet or rolled on a flat surface with a rolling pin it will cook more quickly that it would in its original form.

Rolled oats are the familiar breakfast form. Rolled oats are made from grain that has been infused with steam and rolled flat between tow smooth rolls. The moisture from the steam keep the grain from fracturing while it is being rolled. The rollers can be adjusted to create a thin, quick cooking roiled oat, a regular oat or a thick rolled oat.

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

The finest form is as flour. Oat flour has been produced for use in flour confectionery. Oat flour contains protein in the range of 12-25%, considerably higher than other cereals.

However, the globulin fraction of the protein is the most abundant, leaving the potential gluten-forming proteins at a lower level than in soft wheat.

Oats cereal