General Mills, Inc.

Karen B Foehse

John D Efstathiou

James R Stoll

Disclosed are puffed, barley based ready-to-eat breakfast cereal products having a high soluble fiber content. The cereal products are characterized by specific densities of about 0.2 to 0.35 g/cc. The soluble fiber content of the cereal compositions is about 3 g/oz or about 10%. The insoluble fiber content is less than about 1.5 g/oz or about 5%. The soluble fiber to insoluble fiber ratio is at least about 2:1. The total insoluble fiber content is less than about 19%. The total fat content of the puffed cereal is less than about 4%. The cereal comprises about 15% to 90% of a barley flour fraction high in soluble fiber. Also disclosed are processes for preparing the puffed barley R-T-E cereals.

High soluble fiber barley expanded cereal and method of preparation

Disclosed are barley flour fractions having concentrated levels of soluble dietary fiber ('SDF'). The barley flour fractions have SDF contents ranging from about 18% to 30%. Also disclosed are dry milling concentration methods for making the high soluble dietary fiber content barley flour fractions. The milling methods involve size reducing a barley flour, especially a 70% to 80% extraction flour, having a native SDF level to a controlled particle size distribution to form a size reduced flour. This is accomplished by a single pass pinmilling step followed by particle size classification at an opening of 30-60 microns to separate the size reduced flour into a starchy fraction and the present barley flour fraction having a 1.2X-5X concentration of SDF compared to the native SDF level.

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Plymouth, MN, United States of America

Karen B Foehse