Chemistry of oats: Protein foods and other industrial products

Abstract

One of the most practical and economical ways of narrowing the gap between the nutritional affluence in the Western world and protein malnutrition in the underdeveloped world is to initiate large‐scale projects aimed at utilizing readily available protein sources. Current annual oat production on a world‐wide basis is estimated to be 50 million metric tons. This is equivalent to 18.5 billion lb of high quality protein sufficient to meet 1 month's requirement of the entire human population on this planet. Ironic as it may appear, only 10% of this excellent quality protein is currently used for human use despite the reasonable yield potential of the oat crop and its suitability for cultivation over a wide range of climatic regions in the world. It must be acknowledged that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has initiated vigorous programs on oat protein utilization. This has resulted in a number of valuable research disclosures. These and older published data have been reviewed in this article with emphasis on oat milling and oat protein concentration and utilization. Available data on by‐products such as starch, gum, antioxidants, and hulls for furfural are also discussed, as they appear to be important factors to be considered prior to a large‐scale commercial undertaking for oat processing. An oat processing commercial venture has the potential of expanding into a number of other processing operations such as pharmaceutical, biochemical, and adhesive areas. Important literature in these areas has also been emphasized in this review. However, the basic premise remains to be the world‐wide utilization of oats as human food in a form permissible under the prevailing economic and technological conditions. It is advocated that oat flakes, oat grits, oat flour, etc. be used in cereal blends for food for peace programs. Additional possibilities of oat utilization for xylose and xylitol production for sweeteners, abrasives, fuel, and production of lipase for the detergent industry have also been pointed out.