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Milling Our Oats

Milling in Cheshire For 14 Generations

We began milling oats in the South Cheshire countryside in 1675, where we are still based today.
Drawing on over 330 years of milling experience it’s no wonder that we are able to produce what is probably the finest range of oat cereals available today.We are international gold medal winners for the quality, purity and consistency of our oats year after year and are the longest established miller of oats and cereals in the UK – no one has been doing it longer!

 

Growing Our Oats

Oats were once one of the UK’s largest cereal crops but are now one of the smallest. For decades Mornflake have been one of the biggest contributors to the continued growing of this traditional crop, by placing some of the largest contracts with specially selected UK farmers. By doing this we are helping to conserve oats as an essential part of the British agricultural economy. Our organic oat cereals are made with oats grown to established organic standards, which fully comply with UK and EU Organic specifications. These crops rely on the goodness of the soil for their purity and are enriched only by natural means.

 

 

How We Make Them

When oats arrive at the mill they contain all sorts of impurities, ranging from seeds tomuch larger substances, like iron, coal, straw, sticks and stones; which all have to beremoved. The oats are then dried, conditioned and stored in bins until required. Themiller has to obtain from the oat the kernel from which Oatmeal and Porridge Oats aremade and, to do this, a variety of machines and different processes are used.


Cleaning

Cleaning All the seed and extraneous matter has to be removed from the grain while it is still in its whole state. This is accomplished by the use of many ingenious machines which take advantage of the difference in size, shape, and specific gravity of the grain and the impurity. This is done by sieves, currents of air, which we call aspirators, by indented cylinders or discs which pick up the smaller grain or seeds and leave the larger grain which passes on to the next stage:

Roasting or kilning

Roasting or kilning The oat passes through a machine which blows hot gases from a furnace over it and dries the grain down from its natural moisture content of 16% to approximately 6%. It is then cooled and stored (or conditioned, as we call it), until it is required for the next process.

Shelling or removal of husk

Shelling or removal of husk The oats are shelled by passing through a machine which throws the oat at a very high speed against a rubber stationary surface. This has the effect of springing the kernel or groat from the shell before the whole mass passes over an aspirator which is able to blow away the oat husk because of its lighter density. This enables the miller to separate the husk and to grind it directly into cattle food while the groat passes on to the next stage.

 

 

 

Polishing

Polishing, cutting, grading and cleaningThe groat now passes through polishers and over a table separator which extracts any unshelled oats and returns them to the shelling process. The groat is cut on rotary granulators, each groat being cut into three pieces. It is then graded on rotary sieves and aspirated to blow away any small pieces of husk. From this point the meal is called pinhead oatmeal and then stored until it is required for cooking into porridge oats.

Cooking, flaking and dryingThe pinhead oatmeal is passed over a cooker where it is cooked with live high temperature steam. This has the effect of reducing the time required for cooking when porridge is made. After cooking, the pinhead oatmeal is flaked on a flaking roll and it is then dried on a drying band, cooled and packed.

Packing Automatic packing machines are used to pack ‘MORNFLAKE’ OATS into for example 750 gram cartons and 500gram polylaminate visi pillow packs. The cartoning machine fills by weight, seals the carton, and these are then placed in corrugated fibreboard cases for delivery out to the shops ready for you to enjoy.

 

Lifestyle_photEating Our Oats

You can enjoy the nutritional benefits of oats in our wide range of breakfast cereals. From simple and pure porridge oats, oatbran and oatmeal through our convenient sachetsto our ranges of fruit and nut enhanced mueslis and oat crunchy cereals & there's a cereal to suit every age and taste. Enjoying oats doesn't have to stop there though. You can use oats for cooking and baking cakes, biscuits, savouries and sweets. You can even use them for thickening soups and sauces, making stuffings and crumble topping and for coating meat or fish.

Officially The Best

We are proud that our cereals have been awarded the International Grand Medaille D’Or year after year at the World’s Cereals Exhibitions. The award for quality, purity and consistency is a superb endorsement which assures you that you are buying only the very best.


Monde Selection Medal

Organic
Organic Production

Organic production is an overall system of farm management and food production that combines best environmental practices, a high level of biodiversity, the preservation of natural resources, the application of high animal welfare standards and a production method in line with the preference of certain consumers for products produced using natural substances and processes.

 

There is extensive European legislation controlling organic production – the key legislation however is EC Regulation 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products, and EC Regulation 889/2008 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation 834/2007. Within the UK, DEFRA control the growing and processing of organic foods, and there is useful information on the DEFRA website.

 

All organic farming and production in the UK has to be certified under EU regulations by an organic certification body. Full audits are undertaken throughout the supply chain and all organic recipes have to be formally approved by the certification body before they can be manufactured and sold. All Mornflake products carry the UK certification code UK4 (note that this will progressively be replaced by the new code GB-ORG-04)