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Grain Milling
Oats processing follows the following procedure.
Cleaning and sizing
The oats from the silos are processed through vibrating screens to extract any foreign material.
Grading
The oats are then sized by width and length into various grades prior to hulling.
Dehulling
Separation of the outer hull from the inner oat groat is effected by means of centrifugal acceleration. Oats are fed by gravity onto the center of a horizontally spinning disc, which accelerates them towards an outer ring. Groat and hull are separated on impact with this ring. The lighter oat hulls are then aspirated away while the denser oat groats are taken to the next step of processing.
Kilning
The oat groats then pass through a dry heat treatment.
Cutting
Following kilning the oats are cut into smaller fractions to enable rolling to produce a range of oat flake thicknesses. Wholegrain oat flakes do not go through this cutting step.
Cooking
Prior to rolling the cut groat is steam cooked at temperatures around 100 degrees C to increase the moisture content and increase the elasticity of the cut groat which enables flakes to be produced.
Final processing
- Flaking. This process uses two large smooth rolls spinning at the same speed in opposite directions at a controlled distance. Oat flakes, also known as Rolled Oats, have many different sizes, thicknesses, and other characteristics depending on the size of oat groat passed between the rolls. Typically, two sizes of steel cut oats are used to make Scotch, and Rolled Oats, whereas whole oat groats are used to make Traditional Whole Grain. Oat flakes typically range from a thickness of 0.35mm to 1.2mm.
- Drying. After flaking the oat flakes are dryed to around 11% moisture prior to packing.
- Packing. Oats are packed on automatic packing machines.
