Crispy Oats
Crispy oats are oat-based inclusion pieces, made by cooking an oat flour or oat flake base under heat and pressure and expanding it into a light, porous piece that stays crisp in a dry or semi-moist matrix. They sit between an ingredient and a component: a manufacturer buys them by the sack and folds them into bars, cereals, chocolate and yoghurt toppings rather than selling them as they are.
The base formulation is oat flour or oat bran together with a starch or flour carrier, sugar, salt and sometimes added protein, hydrated and passed through a cooking extruder. Expansion at the die produces a cellular structure with a low bulk density, generally 120 to 300 grams per litre, and drying takes the moisture down to 2 to 4 per cent, which is the level at which the piece is crisp and stays crisp. Total dietary fibre depends on how much oat bran is in the base, typically 5 to 12 per cent, with beta-glucan carried through in proportion.
The property that matters commercially is bowl life or bar life, meaning how long a piece holds its texture in contact with milk, syrup or a moist filling. That resistance comes from the low moisture, the closed cell structure and, in coated grades, from a fat or chocolate barrier applied to the surface.
We source bulk Crispy Oats from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Jiangsu. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
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- Function
- Dietary Fibres
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Uniform light brown expanded crisps, free from foreign matter |
| Piece Size | 3 to 8 mm, grade dependent |
| Moisture | Not more than 4.0 per cent |
| Protein | 8.0 to 14.0 per cent for plain grade |
| Fat | Not more than 8.0 per cent |
| Total Dietary Fibre | Not less than 5.0 per cent |
| Ash | Not more than 3.0 per cent |
| Gluten | Not more than 20 mg/kg for gluten-free grade |
| Peroxide Value | Not more than 5.0 meq/kg fat |
| Lead | Not more than 0.2 mg/kg |
| Total Plate Count | Not more than 10000 cfu/g |
| Yeast and Mould | Not more than 100 cfu/g |
| Escherichia coli | Absent in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Grades are specified by piece size, bulk density and composition. Piece sizes run from small crisps of two to four millimetres for chocolate and yoghurt inclusions, through five to eight millimetre pieces for cereal bars, to larger clusters and shapes for breakfast cereal. Bulk density is the second parameter, lower density giving a lighter, more fragile piece and higher density giving one that survives mixing and packing with less breakage.
Compositional grades cover plain oat crisps, high-protein crisps in which whey, soy or pea protein is included in the extrusion base at levels of 20 to 70 per cent, high-fibre crisps built on oat bran, and whole grain declarations where the oat content qualifies. Surface treatments include uncoated, oil or fat sealed for moisture resistance, and coated with sugar, honey, cocoa or chocolate. Gluten-free certification requires oats grown and handled under segregation and is a defining commercial parameter, as are organic and non-genetically-modified certification.
Applications
- Cereal bars, granola bars and protein bars, where the crisp supplies crunch that survives the binder syrup
- Chocolate bars and confectionery, as an aerating inclusion that lightens the eating quality
- Breakfast cereals and muesli, as a formed piece alongside flakes and dried fruit
- Yoghurt side-pots and dessert toppings, where slow softening in contact with moisture is the requirement
- Ice cream and frozen desserts, as an inclusion that stays crisp at freezer temperatures
- Bakery decoration and dough inclusions, added after mixing so the piece survives intact
- Meal replacement and snack products, contributing texture at low added moisture
- Trail mixes and snack blends, as a formed cereal component
- Coating and breading systems, where crushed crisps give a textured surface
China Manufacturers of Crispy Oats
Top Crispy Oats manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
Crispy oats are a compound food ingredient made from conventional foods and are not subject to food additive authorisation, although any additive used in the formulation, such as an antioxidant on a coating fat or a raising agent in the base, must itself be permitted for the relevant food category. In the European Union the product is declared on the finished food label by its component ingredients in descending order of weight, under the Food Information to Consumers Regulation, and oats appear in the list of cereals containing gluten that must be declared as allergens. Products carrying a gluten-free claim must meet the requirements laid down for that claim, which for oats depends on segregated supply.
In the United States the components are foods used in accordance with good manufacturing practice, with allergen declaration required for any wheat, milk, soy or tree nut component of the formulation. Whole grain content statements follow the agency guidance on whole grain labelling, and the authorised health claim relating oat beta-glucan to coronary heart disease risk is available to a finished food only where the required quantity of beta-glucan per serving is present. Codex covers the material through its general labelling standard and its standards for cereal contaminants rather than through a product standard.
Manufacturing Process
Oat groats are kilned before milling, a heat treatment that deactivates the lipase responsible for rancidity in oat lipid, and are then milled into flour or bran. The base recipe blends the oat fraction with a starch or cereal flour carrier, sugar, salt and any added protein, and this dry blend is metered into a twin-screw cooking extruder along with water. Inside the barrel the material is heated, sheared and compressed, gelatinising the starch and forming a plasticised melt at a moisture level of around 15 to 20 per cent.
The melt is forced through a die into atmospheric pressure, where the superheated water flashes to steam and expands the melt into a porous piece, which a rotating knife cuts to the specified length. The pieces are conveyed to a belt or fluid bed dryer that takes moisture down to 2 to 4 per cent, then cooled. Coated grades pass through a rotating drum where oil, syrup, cocoa or chocolate is sprayed on and set, followed by a second drying or cooling stage. The product is sieved to remove fines and oversize, passed over magnets and a metal detector, and packed in a moisture-barrier liner, since moisture pickup is what ends its shelf life.
