Food Factory- Cornflakes

Food Factory- in this series of posts we will explore how everyday foods are made in food factories.

Cornflakes, Drenched in milk first thing in the morning, we’ve all eaten them at some point.

Theresa at Sleeping Kitten – Dancing Dog asked me how breakfast cereals are made.

This isn’t an area I have had much exposure to so had to look up some of the details.

Step 1 -Processing the grain

Cereals such as Corn (in the case of cornflake) is sorted and cleaned. It will then pass through a breaker roller to remove the hard outer shell. This is a similar process to that of flour manufacture.

At this point the grain is mixed with flavour’s and enhanced with vitamins and minerals. Before being put into a large steam kettle that starts to cook the Grain. It is this stage that the starch within the grain starts to swell and hydrate. The mix is poured out of the kettle in its cooked state.

The grains pass through a drying oven that removes most of the water, leaving the grain in a formable state.

Stage 2 – Making the Flake

The hot cooked grains are then cooled to the correct temperature. They pass through large heavy rollers that press the grain into a flake. These rollers use tons of pressure to squeeze the corn into a flake. The temperature is critical too hot and it will stick to the rollers, too cold and it won’t form a flake.

Final Stage.

The moist flake passes through a hot air blast, that drys out the flakes which makes them crispy.

If further flavour is needed it is added at this stage, i.e. sugar coating is applied.

To maintain the crispness of the flakes, it uses a a packaging film that doesn’t allow moisture to penetrate.

Technology/Science

The main science that this type of food relies on is moisture control. At each stage of process moisture is measured and processed accordingly. This is normally carried out using a NIR scanner.

Food Factory – Each week I plan to reveal how everyday food products are made.