Organic Oat Flakes
Organic oat flakes are dehulled oat groats, from Avena sativa, that have been steam conditioned and pressed flat between rollers, produced from grain grown and handled under certified organic rules. They are a wholegrain product, since flaking removes nothing from the groat and the bran and germ stay attached to the endosperm.
The flake carries starch, protein at 12 to 15 percent, oil at 5 to 9 percent, which is high for a cereal, and the soluble fibre beta-glucan at 3.5 to 5 percent. Beta-glucan is concentrated in the sub-aleurone layer and is what gives cooked oats their viscosity and the category its cholesterol and satiety positioning. The oil fraction is why oats must be heat stabilised: native oat lipase would otherwise hydrolyse the lipids to free fatty acids within days of milling.
Flakes come dry at 11 percent moisture or below, pale cream with visible bran flecks, and hold twelve months in cool dry storage. They do not dissolve; they hydrate and swell, releasing soluble beta-glucan into the surrounding liquid and thickening it. Thickness decides cooking behaviour, with thick rolled flakes holding shape in hot liquid and thin or instant flakes hydrating in a minute or less.
We source bulk Organic Oat Flakes from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Beijing. 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
- Nutraceutical
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Flat cream coloured flakes with visible bran, free of hull |
| Identification | Conforms to rolled Avena sativa groat |
| Flake thickness | 0.70 to 0.90 mm |
| Moisture | 11.0 percent maximum |
| Protein, dry basis | 12.0 percent minimum |
| Fat | 5.0 to 9.0 percent |
| Beta-glucan | 3.5 percent minimum |
| Ash | 2.2 percent maximum |
| Free fatty acids, as oleic | 1.0 percent maximum |
| Residual hull and foreign matter | 0.3 percent maximum |
| Lead | 0.2 mg/kg maximum |
| Arsenic | 0.5 mg/kg maximum |
| Total plate count | 10,000 cfu/g maximum |
| Yeast and mould | 500 cfu/g maximum |
| Escherichia coli | Absent in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Flakes are graded principally by cut and thickness. Whole or jumbo rolled flakes are made from intact groats rolled to around 0.7 to 0.9 mm and hold their shape through cooking and baking. Regular rolled flakes are thinner, at roughly 0.5 to 0.6 mm. Quick oats are cut into two or three pieces before rolling, and instant oats are cut finer still and rolled thinnest, sometimes with a further pre-cooking pass so they hydrate in hot water without simmering. Baby flakes are the finest cut grade, milled close to a coarse flour.
Beyond thickness, buyers specify steam stabilised against kilned material, gluten free certified flakes from segregated fields and dedicated mills, and low microbial or heat treated grades for ready to eat and infant applications. Beta-glucan content is called out where the flake feeds a functional claim. Organic certification under the US National Organic Program or the EU organic regulation applies as an overlay to any of these specifications.
Applications
- Breakfast porridge and hot cereal, where thick flakes hydrate and release beta-glucan to thicken the bowl
- Muesli and granola, where whole flakes are the structural base that holds shape through baking with syrup and oil
- Cereal and protein bars, where flakes bind into the syrup matrix and give a chewy body without extrusion
- Oat drink and plant milk production, where flakes are the substrate for enzymatic hydrolysis of starch into a sweet liquid base
- Bakery, where flakes are worked into bread dough for texture and used as a topping that toasts on the crust
- Biscuits, cookies and flapjacks, where the flake supplies the characteristic coarse chew
- Infant and toddler cereals, where fine baby flakes cook to a smooth porridge in a short hold time
- Meat and vegetarian patty formulation, where flakes act as a binder and absorb free moisture during cooking
- Beta-glucan and oat bran fractionation, where flakes are milled and air classified to concentrate the soluble fibre
- Yoghurt and dessert toppings, where toasted flakes provide a crunchy inclusion that resists sogging for a set period
China Manufacturers of Organic Oat Flakes
Top Organic Oat Flakes 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
In the United States rolled oats are a standardised food defined in 21 CFR 137.180, and oats require no additive clearance. Products supplying enough beta-glucan soluble fibre from whole oats may carry the FDA authorised health claim on soluble fibre from certain foods and coronary heart disease risk under 21 CFR 101.81, which sets the qualifying fibre level per serving. Organic status is certified separately under the US Department of Agriculture National Organic Program, 7 CFR Part 205. Oats are not themselves a major allergen in the United States, but cross contact with wheat, barley and rye is the controlling issue for any gluten free claim, which requires compliance with the 20 parts per million threshold of 21 CFR 101.91.
In the European Union oat flakes are an ordinary food under general food law, and Regulation (EU) 2018/848 controls organic production and labelling. Cereals containing gluten, including oats, must be declared under the Food Information to Consumers Regulation, with the standing note that oats free of contamination may be tolerated by most people with coeliac disease. Statutory maximum levels apply for mycotoxins in cereals, notably deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, ochratoxin A and T-2 and HT-2 toxins, to which oats are particularly susceptible, and pesticide maximum residue levels apply as to any crop. Codex Alimentarius covers the grain through its standards for contaminants in cereals and its guidelines for organically produced foods.
Manufacturing Process
Certified organic oats arrive as covered grain and are cleaned on scalpers, aspirators, destoners, magnets and optical sorters to remove straw, stones, other cereal seed and discoloured or mould affected grain. Because gluten free grades are common, wheat, rye and barley kernels are targeted specifically at this stage by width, length and optical sorting. Cleaned oats are then kilned, a steam and hot air treatment that raises the kernel temperature enough to denature lipase and lipoxygenase, which fixes the shelf life of everything made downstream, and also develops the toasted oat aroma.
Stabilised oats are dried, cooled and dehulled on impact hullers that spin the grain against a ring so the hull cracks and separates, with hulls aspirated off and the groats graded on gravity tables to return unhulled kernels for a second pass. Whole groats then go to flaking. For thick flakes the groats are steamed to soften them and rolled directly; for quick and instant grades the groats are first cut into pieces on steel cut mills before steaming and rolling. Flakes leave the rolls warm and moist and are dried and cooled in a band or fluidised bed drier to below 11 percent moisture, then screened to remove fines, passed over magnets and metal detectors, and packed. Organic and gluten free integrity is held by segregated intake, dedicated or flushed lines and audited chain of custody.
