Fabrication and characterization of oat flour processed by different methods

Abstract

The properties of oat flour can be manipulated by processing to suit various consumption and product development needs. In this work, three different processes typically used on oat flour, namely the extrusion, drum drying and enzyme-treatment spray drying process were evaluated with respect to how each process changes the quality of the oat flour. Results showed that the extrusion process produced oat flour with the best flow ability while the enzyme-treated spray drying process led to the lowest flowability. The color of enzyme-treated spray-drying oat flour was the brightest while the oat flours turned darker after extrusion and drum drying. In addition, drum dried oat flour had the highest capability to hold water. In terms of particle size distribution, the extruded and drum dried oat flour showed smaller particle size and the particle had less complete and irregular surfaces. On the other hand, the enzyme-treated spray-drying samples showed the best particle uniformity and sphericity. The viscosity of all the treated oat flour decreased with increasing shear rate, indicating the shear thinning behavior, and a weak gel-like behavior with very high viscosity was obtained via drum drying. The results reported here can be useful and provide a baseline to fully understand how the oat flour properties changes with different processing methods to offer a wider opportunity in using oat flour for food product fortification and design.