Oat Processing
To produce flavoursome Kölln oat flakes from oats each and every grain should be taken at “face value” - namely when selecting the raw oats already as oats are by far not equal to oats. Oats have special requirements during growth and ripening: whereas the young shoots need a lot of rain at the right time, dry weather with a lot of sunshine is needed during the ripening process.
Upon delivery, oat grains are cleaned at first, i.e. weeds, sand and other foreign materials are removed. Damp lots pass through a heat and moisture treatment to balance moisture and to make them storable.
Then, oats are fed into a gentle thermal treatment, the so-called kilning. Enzymes that break down fats (lipases) get deactivated as otherwise they would cause premature spoilage of the wholegrain oat flakes due to rancidity. At the same time, starch is partly solubilised by the kilning process (resulting in a better digestibility) which brings out the characteristic, nutty oat flavour.
All About Oats
Oats and Nutrition
Oat Processing:
► In the hulling mill
► Production of flakes
In the hulling mill
In the hulling mill, oats are firstly sorted by thickness. In a next step, the husk protecting the oat but unfit for human consumption is removed by means of a computer-controlled centrifugal husker, enabling to maintain the high-quality germ. In a following process, a colour sorter controls the homogeneous colouring of the oat flakes now ready-to-eat.
Particularly big oat grains are then flaked to regular rolled oat flakes. A bit smaller ones are manufactured to cut groats and become delicate Kölln® Wholegrain Oats. Milled oat groats are processed to easily soluble Kölln® Soluble Oats.
Production of flakes
The production of flakes is followed by a fully automated packaging plant. Ongoing quality controls ensure processing and delivery of best oats qualities only. A special packaging protects Kölln oat flakes against external influences such as light, humidity, temperature and foreign odours. This ensures that the high quality of Kölln oat flakes is maintained until consumption.
