(Newswire.net — February 15, 2021) — The human diet mostly consists of grain, either in the form of flour or in its pure dry state. Grains provide starch to the body, which is a source of energy. Grains can also make animal feeds, cosmetics, alcohol, and cooking oil. However, for grains to fit any of its use, it has to undergo some process. But won’t the processing interfere with the grain’s natural value? Grain processing helps remove contaminants, increase their shelf life, and add their value, making them fit for animal and human consumption. To understand the surprising facts about how grains are processed, read this informative article.
Grain Processing for Animals’ Feeds
The starch in grains such as corn makes a more significant percentage in animal feeds. The glucose in the starch has a tight bond that makes it hard for the animal to digest. For this reason, it’s best for the grain’s starches to undergo some processing since they can ferment in animals’ rumen or intestine. Starch helps in milk production in animals; that’s why you’ll always want the animal to make good use of the starch by having maximum digestibility. Since eating unprocessed grain means an increase in digestion time, starch processing is important.
Through mechanical processing, you can do that. It involves cracking or grinding to increase the surface area for easy attachment in the rumen. Mechanical processing also makes reaching endosperm easier. The grain size should be fine, even though it will make your animal have more gases. You can also use other methods such as pelleting, dry heat processing, and gelatinization to extract starch from grain and make animal feeds
Milling Grains for Human Consumption
You have heard about the whole, and refined grain. Do they have any difference in terms of nutritional value? The two have their benefits and varying features. You can mill the grain to get flour after removing the bran and germ, including grinding. Milling doesn’t include any chemical treatment meaning the grain doesn’t decontaminate. However, the process does interfere with the contaminant’s distribution. To get quality end products, the grain must also be of high quality. This means there must be grading. Milling helps in reducing cooking duration, making different foodstuff, and improving the taste. You can opt for dry or wet milling depending on the type of grain and what you intend to cook with it.
Industrial Grain Processing
To make ethanol, you need starch, which is found in grains. The grains must undergo milling, liquification, and saccharification or simply adding glucoamylase enzyme. The starch is given time to ferment, which varies according to each manufacturer. After fermentation, the mash’s distillation takes place before removing water, and finally, denaturing will happen. To get the alcohol, you can add enzymes using the residue from the production of ethanol. It would help if you gave it time to ferment before distilling it. In industrial use of grain, every end product is useful. After production of alcohol from the residues that made ethanol, you get animal feeds.
From grain’s, you can also get sweetening agents. You can make adhesives using grains like wheat starch to get very smooth but sticky glue. To make the wheat starch adhesive, you can use different methods such as cooking it. Grain can make different kinds of products in the paper industry. That’s not all since you can get a fuel source from rice chaff after removing the useful parts.
Conclusion
With the rise of technology, the processing of grain is becoming easier. You don’t need to grind or mill manually as it was some years back. Productivity levels are also increasingly making it possible to achieve a lot in no time. If you process grain, you’ll not only increase its market value but also make different products. You can also use the same amount of grain for various processes to get different end products.