INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
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Vol. 20, No. 12
Chemistry and the Breakfast-Food Industry Willis S. Hilpert THE MINERLABORATORIES, CHICAGO, ILL.
HE cereal breakfast-food industry as we know i t today
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has developed and grown slowly and steadily during the last generation. Preceding this development and growth and the resultant introduction of the large number of widely advertised breakfast foods, we were content with and accustomed to porridge, or, as it is sometimes called, mush. This preparation of cereals was, in turn, preceded by the parching of grains which was practiced in the early days by the Scotch in preparing their oatmeal and by the Indians in making their maize more palatable. While such preparations as rolled oats and wheat, whole rice, and a number of finely ground cereals which require cooking still enjoy wide use and popularity, a very large number of ready-to-eat cereals have been developed and are used extensively. This class of breakfast food, which appeals to the housewife who must herself prepare breakfast, and usually in a short time, has more recently been enlarged by the appearance on the market of quick cooking rolled oats. This form of rolled oats is produced by making the flakes smaller and thinner, which permits of thorough cooking in a much shorter time than is required for the larger and thicker oats.
The grains more commonly used in the manufacture of breakfast foods are oats, wheat, corn, rice, and, to a smaller extent, barley and rye. I n certain foods the entire grain is used; in other forms certain parts of the grain, such as the germ and bran, are removed; in another type of breakfast food we find the grain finely ground and bolted, with a comparatively low fiber content; in a small number of preparations the carbohydrates have been altered somewhat by the action of malt. I n some products we find that salt, sugar, sirup, or honey has been added in small quantities, but by far the greatest bulk of our breakfast foods have substantially the same composition as the original grain. Although many of these products are very close to the parent grain in composition, practically all have been processed more or less to increase palatability, digestibility, or appeal to the senses. Rice is polished. Corn has had the greater portion of the natural oil removed to decrease its tendency to become rancid. I n the case of corn flakes, salt and sugar have been added. The oat foods have had more or less of the fibrous hull removed, and have been slightly steamed and then rolled or crushed. Wheat foods in general retain the germ, and, with the exception of such products as farina and gluten preparations, more or less of the bran is retained. Unground wheat is used only to a small extent. Wheat when moderately crushed is known as cracked wheat or wheat grits, and retains substantially the whole grain; flaked wheat products are treated much like the flaked or rolled oats; shredded wheat products are put through softening, pressing, and drying processes and represent the whole grain; puffed wheat also may be considered the whole grain. Chemical Control of Processes
That our cereal breakfast foods pass through a number of processes, are constantly being made more attractive to the eye, and are being made more completely digestible and easier t o prepare and serve, indicates that chemists have had, and still have, an important field for their endeavors. Chemists probably first came into the breakfast-food industry purely to control the quality of the raw material and of the finished
products. Later they were called in to improve existing processes or steps in the processes, to develop new products, and to increase the food value of products already on the market. I n plant control the chemist examines the grain that comes in as raw material to see that i t is reasonably clean, plump, and free from extraneous matter, foreign grains, and seeds. I n the case of some of the products which are widely advertised as possessing certain advantages as foods because of their composition, analyses must, of course, be made, first, of the raw grain to insure a material containing the proper proportions of important constituents, and finally of the finished product to see that i t passes muster before i t leaves the factory. The examination of raw materials often entails the determination of moisture, protein, fat, fiber, and carbohydrate contents, besides the percentage of weed seeds, foreign grains, and dirt. The finished product is examined to determine its composition, as well as its appearance, odor, and flavor, and, if i t is a cereal requiring cooking, cooking tests are made. These tests usually consist of treating the food exactly according to instructions on the label of the trade package, to be certain that the product cooks in the specified time and that its flavor and general appearance are what they should be. Breakfast foods of the ready-to-eat type require control especially of the moisture content. It has been found in general that for this type of breakfast food a moisture content below 7 per cent is desirable, because above this moisture content the food loses its crispness and becomes tough. I n spite of the fact that flaked breakfast foods were brought to the proper moisture content, it was found that sooner or later during storage or while on the grocer’s shelf, they absorbed moisture causing loss of crispness and a t the same time increasing the toughness of .the flake. This situation, of course, had to be met, and so investigations were made in an effort to develop a carton that would preserve as nearly as possible the original crispness of the flakes. As the result of work along these lines, cartons which protect the contents from atmospheric moisture are now used to package flakes and other crisp breakfast foods. Flake foods, such as corn flakes, are carefully examined also to check color, odor, and flavor, to determine the percentage of burned or scorched particles, and to determine the average size of the flakes. Corn flakes are examined for their salt and sugar content, which, together with the toasting, determine their flavor. I n the control of the newer types of quick cooking cereals, such as rolled oats, cooking tests are especially important, because of the great stress laid on the saving of time through the use of this type of oatmeal. It is necessary, therefore, to check with special care the time required for cooking. Chemical Research
While the chemist is essential in the routine factory control of raw materials and finished products, his researches are vastly more important to the manufacturers, for it is due to his efforts that more perfect products are manufactured. As examples we may take rice and corn cereals. Until comparatively recent years, rice, though a cereal, was not generally considered a breakfast dish, but now we have a number of brands of rice flakes and the form of rice known as puffed rice. It required long continued investigations to determine just the best way to treat rice so that it
December, 1928
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
could be flaked, and then the best flaking procedure to give a product that would be palatable and crisp, and yet would possess sufficient strength to withstand the rigors of packaging and shipping, had to be developed. The production of puffed rice and of puffed wheat resulted from extended research in an endeavor to find new and useful forms of cereal breakfast foods. Many difficult problems had t o be solved and many machines designed and built before the present puffed cereals were ready to make their debut among the older and well-known breakfast foods. For years corn as a cereal was used mainly in the form of corn meal and hominy, both of which required cooking. Then efforts were made to produce a new form of corn and through diligence and perseverance our present corn flake, which is so much superior to the first thin and rather flavorless product, has been evolved. Research brought out the corn flake in its present form, which is much thicker than the old type, yet, because of the puffed condition, is very light and crisp. By careful adjustment of the addition of salt and sugar and the toasting process a dainty, crisp, and pleasingly flavored flake has been developed. All through the various periods and changes of dietitians’ interest in calories, minerals, proteins, and vitamins, the chemist has played an important role in the science and practice of breakfast-food production. During the epoch when calories were of paramount interest, chemists were called on t o make seemingly endless analyses of an enormous number of foods to determine from the protein, fat, and carbohydrate content just what the energy value of each food was. When the interest shifted to minerals chemists had to follow the procession and furnish information on the content of the inorganic food constituents. The value of calcium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium, sulfur, chlorine, iodine, and manganese has been the subject of an enormous amount of research among chemists and biologists. While the general interest has drifted more and more toward the accessory food elements-the vitamins-perusal of our current chemical literature impresses one with the large number of researches still being carried on in the field of inorganic food constituents. Not only are biologists working along these lines, but many chemists still find much to be done in perfecting procedures for the detection and estimation of the inorganic elements in food products. As vitamins have come to be considered of vast importance, chemists are endeavoring to learn more definitely just what they are and are conducting many researches with this end in view. The chemist is also called upon t o discover and perfect chemical tests for the presence and amount,of the various vitamins. Although up to the present time we have devised no very satisfactory chemical procedures for the quantitative determination of vitamins and must still depend on animal feeding tests, we still hope that a short cut may be found through chemical research. The most outstanding development in the science of foods in recent years is without question the discovery that foods subjected to the action of ultra-violet rays take on the physiologic value of foods naturally containing vitamin D. Although several investigations in this realm have been and are being made by biologists, the most important work was done by a biochemist and we can very properly credit chemistry with this notable advance in food science. Another very important field for the chemist in connection with the breakfast-food industry is the investigation of the proteins in cereal breakfast foods. We may look upon breakfast foods largely as energy producers because of their usual high carbohydrate content. Yet in some, such as rolled oats, the protein content is substantial and important. It is necessary, of course, t o know more than the quantity of protein in a food, for not all proteins are adequate for proper
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maintenance of the human body. For this reason work is being carried out in connection with several of the wellknown breakfast foods to determine the character and usefulness of the proteips in them. Chemist and Advertising
A phase of the breakfast-food industry which is not usually associated with the chemist is the advertising. At least one of the largest breakfast-food producers considers i t of the utmost importance that every statement made in the advertisements be based on fact, and that no perversion of fact be permitted. To be certain that the advertisements meet their specifications a copy is submitted to the chemical staff for criticism or revision and in this way the public receives only facts which can be backed by scientific evidence. Use of Waste and By-products
The chemist is of value to the breakfast-food manufacturer not only in the control and improvement of his product, but also in increasing the general efficiency of the factory and in augmenting the income from the business. This may be accomplished by simplifying prectioe .somewhere along the line of manufacture or it may be done by making use of waste or by-products. This may be illustrated by an instance in which the chemists of a rolled oats plant were requested t o start research on the utilization of oat hulls, which naturally accumulate in enormous quantities a t large oatmeal factories. The research began with an effort to make the oat hulls more readily digestible for cattle, with the idea that more hulls could thus be made available to the feed industry. If this could be accomplished, animals could be utilized to convert the processed hulls into meat, milk, and eggs, which, in turn, could be made use of by the human organism. However, in the course of this investigation the chemists found that furfural could be produced from the oat hulls, and further study showed that industry could be better served by producing this industrially valuable raw material than by making the hulls more palatable and digestible for animals. As a result of this research, large quantities of oat hulls are made use of every day, and the oatmeal producer has been given an outlet for what was once a waste by-product and a t the same time a new source of income. The chemist, then, may be looked upon in the light of a necessity in the running of the breakfast-food industry. He is a benefactor a t once to his employer and to the public a t large in discovering new foods or new forms of old foods and in studying the composition of foods, so that their use may be put on a scientific and physiologically sound basis. Though chemists have accomplished much for the breakfast-food industry, they have before them a large and important field for research-the utilization of waste and by-products. Some progress has already been made in this direction, but there is still much work ahead, and chemists who are anxious to tax their imagination and ingenuity have here a large and wide-open opportunity.
Hearing on Linseed Oil Costs A hearing on the costs of producing linseed oil in this country and in those from which the oil is imported into the United States will be held Qecember 11, 1928, by the United States Tariff Commission, according to an announcement by the commission. Investigation preliminary t o consideration of petitions for changes in t.he rate of duty on linseed oil was ordered May 4, 1923. Applications had been made for both increase and decrease in the present duty of 3.3 cents per pound. A report was once made to the President, who returned it with a request for additional information.
