Cereals processing technology

162 Cereals processing technology
Other major changes and innovations took place in the 1950s and 1960s. Use
of cooking extruders came into use as continuous cookers to augment batch
cooking. The development of extruded/expanded corn-based snacks led to the
development of low bulk density extruded/expanded breakfast cereals in many
grain combinations, shapes, flavors, and colors. Automation of the gun puffing
process also proceeded. Both fully continuous and automated batch guns were
patented, and put into use which greatly increased the output per hour. In
addition the technology employed to form intricate shapes of pastas was
transferred over to the precooked cereal grain/flour formulas. Once formed the
cooked shapes were dried, conditioned, and gun puffed. Early products were
plain, but these were soon the bases used for presweetened breakfast cereals
aimed at the children’s market of 5–12 year olds. Forced air oven toasting was
perfected and introduced to augment the classic rotary drum toasting ovens for
flakes. Its use was also widely adopted for the drying of the applied sugar
coatings.
Postwar shredding developments were completed successfully in moving
from cumbersome belt pinching and cutting devices to rotary wheel cutting.
Rotary cutting opened the door to the introduction of bite-sized products, and
products made with grains other than wheat; normally, rice and corn, and
products with added flavors, such as sugar, salt, and malt.
In the late 1970s and well into the 1980s much stricter factory safety
regulations were instituted. Occupational and safety regulations regarding
workers’ eye, ear, and total bodily protection were enacted. Breakfast cereal
processors worked diligently to reduce noise levels, for instance, in such
operations as gun puffing and shredding.
Market forces also drove the quest for more nutritious cereals. The emphasis
was aimed at stressing the importance of breakfast as the day’s most important
meal in a world whose pace was beginning to accelerate faster and faster. A
‘vitamin’s horsepower’ race soon evolved where manufacturers and marketers
tried to outdo each other with vitamin additions and marketing strategies. The
marketplace saw the introduction of protein fortified RTE cereals in addition to
merely vitamin and mineral supplements.
The number of choices in shape, flavor, color, texture, eye appeal, resistance
to sogging in milk, etc., seemed to grow to endless boundaries. New varieties
were added in every way, shape and form. Additives included nuts of all kinds,
raisins, date pieces, other dried fruits – even freeze-dried fruits and ice cream
coating on products made brief appearances before proving to be too extravagant
in price for the market to bear.
The breakfast cereal industry from post-World War II to the 1990s was
anything but a stagnant marketplace. It was exciting, fast paced, and extremely
competitive. All of this, mind you, only in the predominant English-speaking
parts of the globe. The expansion of RTE’s into non-English-speaking global
sectors was in its infancy in 1990. With the downfall of Communism, and the
opening of worldwide communications and economies, the RTE cereal field, as
we have known it, is on a new threshold ready to burst forth again.