…Busch Grains offers a wide selection of ingredients to produce customized blends, including oats, fiber, barley, red and white wheat, flax, triticale, rye, rice, pumpkin and sesame seeds, and white and yellow corn.

Convenient                                                                  

With blending facilities strategically located on-site at both our Eugene, Oregon and St. Ansgar, Iowa mills, Busch Grains offers a wide selection of ingredients to produce customized blends, including oats, fiber, barley, red and white wheat, flax, triticale, rye, rice, pumpkin and sesame seeds, and white and yellow corn. If you have an existing blend you’d like us to match, we’ll meet your specific function and label requirements. If you’re looking to create a new mix, we’re happy to work directly with you and your team to help formulate the right combination for your specific needs. We are well-versed in the procurement, production and blending of Certified Organic and gluten-free ingredients and we are directly involved in the supply chain in a way that guarantees that any imported commodities are audited by our in-house team, FSMA approved and supplied with the same food safety and security as products from our industry leading mills.

Cost-Effective

When you choose a value-added blend instead of formulating with individualized ingredients, you save on procurement, inventory, storage, transportation and packaging costs, significantly reducing the final cost of the product while also minimizing shipping issues.

For shipping, you have plenty of cost-saving options. After your blend is completed and ready to ship, your product can be delivered via bulk truck, placed into industrial totes, or into various bag sizes. Tap into our retail packaging services for even more cost savings.

Good Things For Good People

As the world’s largest organic oat processor, we take pride not only in supplying good things for good people but also by making that process as smooth as possible. With mills on both the West Coast and in the Midwest, your products can be manufactured closest to you.

If you’d like to find out more information on custom blends or you’d like to contact one of our experts, check out this page.

Email us or give us a call at 541.687.8000 to get in contact with an expert.

The post Multi-Grain Custom Blends appeared first on Busch Grains.

From discovering food sensitivities and allergies to setting new personal nutrition goals, the American diet is constantly evolving. The need for healthy, allergen-free alternatives is growing with these changing food preferences and requirements. One area that we have seen a particularly significant need for alternative options is the dairy industry. For those with lactose intolerance or dairy allergies, it can be difficult to gain the proper nutrition typically found in dairy products, and it can be even more rare to enjoy food products akin to milk, yogurt, or frozen desserts when one is avoiding dairy. In addition, these products are often highly restricted within dieting programs focused on weight loss and controlling heart disease, as they are typically high in fat and cholesterol.

Once again, oats play the hero in providing a solution for this challenge. Oat products, functional flours and oat fiber possess a variety of characteristics that make them ideal in formulations for dairy-free alternatives. Busch Grains’ Oat Fiber, Oat Hydrocolloid, Micro-Ground Oat Bran, Colloidal Whole Oat Flour, Low Viscosity Whole Oat Flour, hydrolyzed oat flour and CereSweet® are instrumental in achieving the ideal texture, taste, and nutritional composition of dairy-free products.

As an added bonus, Busch Grains’ oats are free from other common allergens, including gluten, soy, and nuts! Soy and nuts, such as almonds and cashews, are commonly used to provide dairy-free alternative products, but these products are not marketable to the large portion of the population with nut allergies. Oats are naturally free from gluten and are available gluten-free.

Busch Grains’ functional oat flours are available in a variety of viscosities to achieve a range of textures…

Texture

One persisting obstacle is achieving the ideal texture in alternative food products. Fortunately, oats can deliver a versatile range of textures, functioning in a variety of ways in different forms. Busch Grains’ functional oat flours are available in a variety of viscosities to achieve a range of textures. Our Oat Hydrocolloid contains gelling and emulsifying properties, while our Colloidal Whole Oat Flour acts as a thickener in sauces, soups, and dry mix beverage products. Our low-viscosity flours perform well in creamer formulations to achieve the ideal mouthfeel and low sugar formulas—though this is determined in part by the processing system being utilized. Many of our functional oat flours can be used to develop a smoothie with the ideal texture, and we offer oat bran, including Micro-Ground Oat Bran in customizable particle sizes, which can be combined with other synergistic ingredients to obtain differing textures.

Taste

Due to its high fat content, it can be a significant challenge to obtain the rich mouthfeel typically associated with cow’s milk. Busch Grains’ functional oat flours have been formulated to achieve a range of mouthfeel and flavors, from neutral toasted oat to sweet (40-50% of table sugar). In particular, our CereSweet contributes malty, sweet notes to beverages with low solids (>2%). This makes oat flour an ideal replacement for ingredients high in sugar and fat—offering a desirable flavor while maintaining superior nutritive properties.

Nutrition

Oats are lower in fat than cow’s milk and are much higher in fiber, making them far easier to digest (a common obstacle for those with lactose sensitivities). Oat milk also contains more protein than other plant-based milks, such as almond or rice milk. Our oat flour products offer a functional, nutritional, GI-tract-friendly solution for dairy-free formulations. For example, our Functional Flours function as effective fat replacements and taste enhancements for beverages with varying solids (e.g. >5%), such as meal replacement beverages.

All of our products are non-GMO and available in both Organic and Conventional forms, as well as optionally Gluten-free…

At Busch Grains, all of our products are non-GMO and available in both Organic and Conventional forms, as well as optionally Gluten-free. With our single-source advantage, we are positioned to provide our partners with quality ingredients, tailored formulations, and personalized expertise in research and development of new products.

If you would like to request a sample or further discuss Busch Grains’ oat fiber or functional oat flour ingredients within your application, we look forward to learning more. We specialize in partnering with food and beverage developers to create unique, innovative ingredients that help you succeed.

Email us or give us a call at 541.687.8000 to get in contact with an expert.

The post The oat: A KEY INGREDIENT IN DAIRY-FREE ALTERNATIVE FOOD PRODUCTS appeared first on Busch Grains.

We love a hearty bowl of this nutritious breakfast food any day, but today is especially appropriate since it’s National Oatmeal Day in the United States. And since Canada is home to our largest oat operation and some of the most fertile oat acreage anywhere, we’ve gone ahead and adopted this day in Canada as well.

In honor of National Oatmeal Day, we are sharing some of our favorite “stepped-up” oatmeal recipes with you—variations of traditional oatmeal as well as some fun ways to enjoy overnight oats.

Benefits of Oats

But first, let us share with you some of the many health benefits of eating oats.

• Oatmeal is a great source of soluble fiber (beta-glucans), as well as other nutrients.
• Consuming just 3 grams of soluble oat fiber per day (in just one bowl of oatmeal) may lower total cholesterol and decrease your risk of heart disease and stroke, according to the FDA.
• Oats are packed with many essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants such as manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc, folate, B-vitamins, calcium, and potassium.

Oats (including various oat flours and oat fiber) can be used in countless applications to provide flavor, texture, and nutrition to your product, from nutrition bars to beverages to cereals.

Whether you enjoy old-fashioned rolled oats, quick-cook oats, baby oats, steel-cut oats, overnight oats, or any other variation, have yourself a healthy, satisfying bowl of oatmeal today. Bonus: the fiber in oats helps you stay full longer.

What’s your favorite way to eat oatmeal? Let us know in the comments!

Stepped-Up Oatmeal Recipes

Download this printable recipe sheet for even more oat recipes (including oatmeal monster cookies, overnight oats, slow cooker oats, and apple crisp) in one handy reference.

BOUNTY BAR OATMEAL

½ Cup Quick Cook Oats*
¼ Cup Chocolate Chips
¼ Cup Shredded Coconut

SALTED CARAMEL OATMEAL

½ Cup Quick Cook Oats*
¼ Cup Salted Caramel chips

RAISINS AND SPICE OATMEAL

½ Cup Quick Cook Oats*
¼ Cup Raisins
¼ tsp Cinnamon

CINNAMON CARAMEL APPLE OATMEAL

½ Cup Quick Cook Oats*
¼ Cup Dehydrated or Freeze-Dried Apples
¼ Tbsp Maple Sugar
¼ tsp Cinnamon

S’MORES OATMEAL

½ Cup Quick Cook Oats*
2 Tsp Chocolate Chips
6 Mini Marshmallows
1 tsp Graham Cracker Crumbs

Directions

Add ½ Cup Hot Water.
Stir and wait 3 minutes. Enjoy!

VANILLA CHIA OVERNIGHT OATMEAL

1 Cup Rolled Oats*
½ Cup Plain Greek Yogurt (or yogurt of choice)
1 Cup milk of choice
1 Tbsp Honey or Maple Syrup
¼ Cup Fresh or Freeze-Dried Raspberries (if using fresh, swirl in just before eating)
1 tsp Vanilla Protein Powder
1 Tbsp Chia Seeds

Directions

Mix all ingredients until combined.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.

*Use certified gluten-free oats to make these recipes certified gluten-free.

Gluten-Free Oats

Did you know that oats are naturally gluten-free? But sometimes they come in contact with gluten-containing grains in the field, in transport, or in storage. Luckily, we have our gluten-free certification process perfected to ensure that those who are gluten-intolerant or have Celiac Disease can enjoy delicious, nutritious oats! (In fact, our process ensures our oats are well under the strict 20ppm limit that FDA sets – we are consistently below 10ppm.)

Have an OATrageous day!

The post Oat Recipes to Celebrate National Oatmeal Day appeared first on Busch Grains.

Here are the top three trends we noticed at the show.

1. Oat Beverages and Oat Bases
   

Oat-based beverages took front-and-center stage for new product attention. From oat “milks” to oat-based ice cream, this heart-healthy, plant-based ingredient is a nutritional powerhouse and offers many functional properties to assist in your formulations. As an added bonus, it’s available gluten-free and organically certified.

Busch Grains offers a wide range of oat flours with many different functionalities for use in a variety of applications. In fact, we saw this trend coming and wrote an article all about how our various specialty oat flours can be formulated in beverages and bases.  

2. Plant-Based Meat Alternatives & Snacks

Food companies are getting extremely creative with vegan “meat” products and protein-packed snacks. From “meat” patties to snacks packed with plant-based protein, there are many more vegan options coming to store shelves soon.

Oats and oat fiber can play an important role in formulating for plant-based products. In addition to being vegan, they are also available gluten-free and organically certified. Busch Grains’ Oat Fiber is a chemical-free, clean label ingredient with a myriad of functional properties to assist in plant-based formulation, from moisture retention to texture to breakage reduction in low-moisture food systems and more.

3. Digestive Health

It’s becoming more apparent that a healthy gut is important to our overall health. Because of this, food and beverage companies are introducing symbiotic gut-healthy products that focus on fiber as a prebiotic and fortifying with probiotics.

Oat hull fiber and oat bran are important clean label ingredients packed with soluble and insoluble dietary fiber in addition to flavor, nutrition, health benefits, synergistic functionality, processability, texture, and more. Oats pack a punch as a key ingredient not only to digestive health since they are high in total dietary fiber, but also for heart health thanks to the beta-glucans. Flax is another high-fiber ingredient for use in a myriad of applications and available whole, milled, or in a custom blend.

We would welcome the opportunity to learn more about your plant-based formulation needs and partner with you to find the solution that fits. To get in touch with one of our technical experts, please email us or call 541.341.6461.

Suggested Articles

What is Oat Fiber?

These 6 Oat Flours are Revolutionizing Beverage Formulation

The post Top 3 Food & Beverage Trends for 2019 appeared first on Busch Grains.

You may have seen oat milk starting to pop up next to the soy and almond milk on grocery store shelves lately, each with a slightly different texture, flavor, and nutrition profile. Whether a developer is seeking flavor, nutrition, health benefits, synergistic functionality, processability, or texture, Busch Grains offers a wide range of functional oat flours, which can provide solutions to many formulation challenges.

OAT FLOUR IS NOT ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL

Busch Grains’ Functional Flours, with their wide range of properties, can uniquely control important characteristics such as thickening and gelling, stabilization, mouthfeel, and dispersion in your end product. Busch Grains is known for its state-of-the-art oat manufacturing capabilities and we are using that expertise to develop oat products that are relevant to the explosive and rapidly changing beverage market.

“No one functional oat flour is one-size-fits-all, which is why Busch Grains manufactures a variety of flours using different milling techniques,” explains Roberto Serrano, Vice President of Product Development. “Each has its own functionality that accommodates various textures, flavors, sweetness, and nutrition requirements.”

From wet processing (UHT, ESL, retort, hot fill, HPP, PEF, tetra pak, etc.) to dry mixes and more, the Busch Grains line of oat flours will provide the variety of tools necessary to meet your objective.

RANGE OF OAT FLOUR MODIFICATION & FUNCTIONALITY

The following two charts outline the characterizations of each of Busch Grains’ Functional Oat Flours. This first chart shows the particle size in relation to the degree of flavor and/or sweetness modifications.

This second chart illustrates the rheological properties of the various oat flours by using the Rapid Visco Analyzer (RVA) and specifically comparing viscosity in relation to temperature and rate of hydration. This rheological comparison may assist the user in establishing the best processing conditions.

OAT FLOUR PERFORMANCE IN COMMON BEVERAGE BASES

While we have witnessed the use of these oat flours in numerous applications, the performance of each one depends on your specific processing system and desired end-product. Below is some direction on how each of these flours performs in common beverage bases, but ultimately it will depend on your specific processing formula and system.

• Beverages with low solids (>2%): You may be able to utilize a whole oat flour or if you would like to add pronounced “malty,” oat-flavor notes and a high degree of sweetness, CereSweet® 16 and 40 may be a great option.
• Beverages with high solids (>5%): With the goal of delivering nutrition per serving, beverages with high solids require a flour with lower viscosity, such as our Low-Viscosity Whole Oat Flour or Ceresweet® 16.
• Creamers: The struggle with creamers is that they have higher solids to improve mouthfeel, but still go through a customized high-pressure homogenization which is typical in the dairy industry. A very low viscosity flour typically does well but it depends on the system used.
• Smoothies: The textural beauty of this base is that it offers the ability to use a wider range of oat flours.
• Mixing oat bases with other ingredients: This can provide the benefit of combining the best of multiple bases with their unique consumer health benefits. The texture is driven by the process used, including the pH, flavor combinations, and synergistic ingredients (i.e. emulsifiers, stabilizers, etc.)
• Functional, nutritional, and meal replacements: Our CereSweet® 16 & 40 and Low-Viscosity Whole Oat Flour are easily digestible and designed with these applications in mind.

CLEAN LABELING AND CERTIFICATIONS

Most oat flours from Busch Grains can be labeled as Whole Oat Flour or Oat Flour and whole grain. All are clean label, non-GMO, and available organically certified or conventional. Most are also available gluten-free. (Low Viscosity Whole Oat Flour isn’t available GF yet, but it’s in the works.)

If you would like to request a sample or discuss how our functional oat flours might help with your formulation needs, we would love the opportunity to speak with you. We specialize in partnering with food and beverage developers to create unique, innovative ingredients that help you succeed.

Email us or give us a call at 541.341.6461 to get in contact with the appropriate expert.

The post These 6 Oat Flours Are Revolutionizing Beverage Formulation appeared first on Busch Grains.

Every day is a good day to enjoy one of the most nutritious breakfast foods: Oatmeal. But today is especially appropriate since it’s National Oatmeal Day in the United States. And since the Canadian Prairies include some of the most fertile oat acreage on the planet, and since our largest oat operation is in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, we’re going to go ahead and adopt this day in Canada as well.

In honor of National Oatmeal Day, we are sharing some of our favorite “stepped-up” oatmeal recipes with you—variations of traditional oatmeal as well as some fun ways to enjoy overnight oats.

But first, let us share with you some of the many health benefits of eating oats.

• Oatmeal is a great source of soluble fiber (beta glucans), as well as other nutrients.
• Consuming just 3 grams of soluble oat fiber per day (in 1 bowl of oatmeal) may lower total cholesterol and decrease your risk of heart disease and stroke, according to the FDA.
• Oats are packed with many essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants such as manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc, folate, B-vitamins, calcium, and potassium.

Oats (including various oat flours and oat fiber) can be used in countless applications to provide flavor, texture, and nutrition to your product, from nutrition bars to beverages to cereals.

Whether you enjoy old-fashioned rolled oats, quick-cook oats, baby oats, steel-cut oats, overnight oats, or any other variation, have yourself a healthy, satisfying bowl of oatmeal today. Bonus: the fiber in oats helps you stay full longer.

Some of our favorite toppings (in addition to the recipes below) include: fresh fruit (especially blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and bananas), dried cranberries, raisins, goji berries, almonds, pecans, walnuts, coconut flakes, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, chia seeds, flax meal, peanut butter, and more. The options are endless—have fun experimenting!

What’s your favorite way to eat oatmeal? Let us know in the comments!

Stepped-Up Oatmeal Recipes

Download this printable recipe sheet for even more oatmeal and overnight oats recipes in one handy reference.

S’MORES OATMEAL
½ Cup Quick-Cook Oats*
2 tsp Chocolate Chips
6 Mini Marshmallows
1 tsp Graham Cracker Crumbs

CARAMEL APPLE OATMEAL
½ Cup Quick-Cook Oats*
¼ Cup Fresh or Dehydrated Apples, diced
¼ Tbsp Maple Sugar
¼ tsp Cinnamon

COCONUT BANANA OATMEAL
½ Cup Quick-Cook Oats*
¼ Cup Bananas, sliced
1 Tbsp Pecans or other nuts, chopped
1 tsp Shredded Unsweetened Coconut

Directions
Add ½ Cup Hot Water.
Stir and wait 3 minutes. Enjoy!

VANILLA CHIA OVERNIGHT OATMEAL
1 Cup Rolled Oats*
½ Cup Plain Greek Yogurt (or yogurt of choice)
1 Cup milk of choice
1 Tbsp Honey or Maple Syrup
1 Tbsp Chia Seeds
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions
Mix all ingredients until combined.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.

*Use certified gluten-free oats to make these recipes certified gluten-free. (Did you know that oats are naturally gluten-free? But sometimes they come in contact with gluten-containing grains in the field, in transport, or in storage. Luckily there are many processes available to ensure that oats can be certified as gluten-free.)

Have an OATrageous day!

The post Stepped-Up Oatmeal Recipes appeared first on Busch Grains.

Among the group of fibers on the newly recognized list of dietary fiber sources, Busch Grains’ oat fiber offers the best opportunity to formulate for clean labels. Busch Grains utilizes a proprietary, chemical-free, environmentally sound processing technique for all of its oat fiber ingredients, including the market’s first chemical-free and organically certified oat fiber.

Through its proprietary process, Busch Grains offers oat fiber with a variety of functional characteristics, suitable for applications from beverages to bars, snacks, pasta, cereals, and meat products, including gluten-free, Non-GMO, and organic products.

“Nothing added and nothing taken away” remains the motto for Busch Grains’ oat fiber, with the company continually monitoring the supply chain from field selection to milling. “In today’s era of demand for transparency and traceability, our oat fiber has always checked all the boxes for discerning consumers,” says Chris Kongsore, Executive Vice President of Busch Grains. “The recent change in FDA regulations further strengthens our position as a market leader in the supply of organic, chemical-free, clean label dietary oat fiber.”

In food formulation, oat fiber’s functional properties include improved product texture and integrity as well as enhanced crumb softness in baked goods, among others. Oat fiber is cost-effective, possesses a bland natural flavor with no off-odors, and is available in bags, totes, and bulk shipments.

“The functional and physiological benefits of oat fiber and the chemical-free process we use to produce it, make our fiber the preferred dietary fiber for use among formulators for all sorts of applications,” said Roberto Serrano, VP of Product Development for Busch Grains.

The post New FDA Ruling Allows Oat Fiber for Dietary Fiber Label Claims appeared first on Busch Grains.