Ready to Eat CerealsReady to eat cereals are processed grain formulations suitable for human consumption without further cooking in the home. They are relatively shelf-stable, lightweight, and convenient to ship and store. There are made primarily from corn, wheat, oats or rice, in about that of order of the quantities produced, usually with added flavor ad fortifying ingredients.
Hot cereals, on the other hand, are made primarily from oats or wheat; those made from corn or rice are of minor importance, being produced in relatively small quantities. The original hot cereals required cooking in the home before they were ready for consumption, but now some varieties are preprocessed so that they are ready for consumption with the addition of either hot water or milk to the cereal in the bowl.
The processing of ready to eat cereals typically involves first cooking the grain with flavor material and sweeteners. Sometimes the more heat stable nutritional fortifying agents are added before cooking, Two general cooking methods are employed in the industry today – direct steam injection into the grain mass in rotating batch vessel, and continuous extrusion cooking , with the latter very much on the increase in recent decades.
Ready to Eat Cereals
