What sets the product apart from traditional whole-grain corn flours is the high amylose content of the proprietary hybrid of corn used to make it. “There are textural and processing applications that come out of the high amylose content,” Witwer says. “Because of that, we end up adding extrusion and lightness and volume to whole-grain snacks that traditional whole-grain flours and other whole grains don’t. And it all comes back to the chemical composition of the high-amylose corn.”
The product is also rich in RS2 resistant starch fiber. At about 30%, the flour’s fiber level “is significantly higher than most other whole grains on the market,” Witwer says. “And, when it tests, it tests as insoluble fiber. It behaves like insoluble fiber.” The exception is its behavior with respect to water absorption. She says the product affects required water levels and mix times “not nearly as much” as other whole-grain flours, “because its fiber content is mostly resistant starch, which has a very similar water-holding capacity to flour—not like cellulose, which has a very high waterholding capacity. It doesn’t continue to absorb water like other insoluble fibers.”
The product performs and expands well in the extruder, too, although at the expense of its fiber content. Because RS2 derives its digestion resistance from the natural conformation of its starch granules, the change those granules undergo during extrusion can alter their resistance. “You take the starch through an extrusion process and you gelatinize it,” Witwer says. “And, in that gelatinization process, you break up the structure by which it maintains its fiber.” She notes that, even if manufacturers extrude out all the resistant-starch fiber, “they’ve still got all the whole-grain components naturally present in the corn.”
From flaky to crunchy
Functional whole-grain flours have made it easier to develop mainstream snacks and goodies, but they’re not manufacturers’ only options for adding whole grains to snacks. The whole grains themselves, as well as flakes, extruded pieces and clusters made with them, “have the multiple textures and appearance to add interest to these products, are grain-based, and thus form a basis for whole-grain addition,” Bonner says.
Individual and multigrain mixes can put a product’s whole-grain content right where consumers can see it. And, by coating these clusters and mixes with sweeteners and other flavor systems, they add a twist to the flavor, too. “It could be a sweet cinnamon. It could be a savory cheese. And those can bring sensational flavor development,” Bonner says.
When choosing an individual flake, or the multiple components of a cluster, product appearance and texture will determine thickness, size and grain mix. “There are different flake thicknesses depending on the appearance, the product you want to manufacture and the application,” Bonner says. “You’ll use a whole flake, no matter what grain it is, in a granola bar application, or in a baked bar application. You’ll use what we call a quick flake or a cut flake—a thinner and smaller flake—in clusters, because that’s providing you surface area to hold those clusters together.”
You could even include grain flakes within the matrix of a baked or sheeted cracker dough. In most applications, though, the flake appears as a topical sprinkled on the surface of a chip or cracker. “It’s really about the appearance,” Bonner says. “And that’s where you might use some of the smaller flakes so they do not fall or roll off.”
Kimberly J. Decker, a California-based technical writer, has a B.S. in Consumer Food Science with a minor in English from the University of California, Davis. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area, where she enjoys eating and writing about food. You can reach her at
kim@decker.net.
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