Provided is a method of making a dehydrated food product. The method includes culling the food product for foreign objects, cleaning the food product, germinating the food product, dehydrating the food product, and cooling the dehydrated food product. Dehydrating the food product can include maintaining the food product in a compartment, heating air in the compartment to a temperature at or between about 115? F. and about 118? F. to remove moisture from the food product, and venting the heated air and moisture from the compartment. The food product can be, as examples, nuts, seeds, and/or beans.

A coated foodstuff is made using two starch components. One is a spray cooked agglomerated waxy corn starch as having a peak time to hydration viscosity of between about 5.5 and about 7.5 minutes. The snack has unique expansion and hardness properties compared to coatings made from other corn starches, in embodiments the snack has a coating that expands to between about 1.7 and about 2.6 mm, a hardness of between about 3000 and about 3750 grams, or a hardness-to-expansion ratio of about 1200:1 to about 2200:1 g/mm.

An apparatus and method for controlling the movement of a food product in a container is described. The apparatus can be cleanable, portable, and fully automated. It can include a main container for holding the food product and one or more other containers for holding a substance, such as liquid. The main container can be moved between the one or more other containers so that the food product is immersed in the substance (e.g., liquid) in the one or more other containers. Any of the containers can be heated to heat the food product. This movement of the main container can be used run fully automated cycles (e.g., sprouting, rinsing, soaking, cooking, cleaning, etc.) that do not require user interaction.

In some embodiments, a protein-coated product includes an edible center and a protein-fortified coating including at least 30% by weight of protein. In some embodiments, the protein-fortified coating includes 30% to 70% by weight of protein with the protein-fortified coating being 20 to 60% by weight of the protein-coated product. A method of making a protein-coated product includes providing an edible center, preparing a syrup, preparing a dry blend including at least 30% protein, by weight, coating the edible center with alternating layers of the syrup and the dry blend to form a coated product, and modifying the coated product to form the protein-coated product.

A minimally processed ready-to-eat legume/grain product is provided containing a significant amount of prebiotic fiber and a probiotic source or is consumed with a probiotic source for the prevention and/or treatment of inflammatory chronic conditions such as inflammatory, autoimmune chronic conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), digestive disorders such chronic constipation, gastric acid reflux, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, some type of cancer, malabsorptive disorders, eczema as well mental health disorders such as anxiety disorder. The present invention is suitable for men and woman of all ages.

A method of producing expanded nuts, the method comprising the steps of: (a) immersing a plurality of nut kernels in an aqueous liquid thereby hydrating at least a portion of each kernel; and (b) gun puffing the hydrated kernels causing at least one of expansion and blistering of at least an outer surface of the nut kernels. There is also disclosed a method of method of producing expanded nuts, the method comprising the steps of: (a) immersing a plurality of nut kernels in an aqueous liquid at a pressure of at least 100 MPa thereby hydrating at least a portion of each kernel; and (b) dehydrating the hydrated kernels causing at least one of expansion and blistering of at least an outer surface of the nut kernels.

The present invention discloses the use of subcritical or supercritical carbon dioxide for injecting additives to seeds, beans, nuts, cereals and pseudo-cereals.

Method for pasteurizing almonds and other nuts with steam at atmospheric pressure. The amount of condensation on and the consequent water uptake of nuts is limited by pasteurizing the nuts in a heating chamber with a gaseous atmosphere including a steam mixture and forming a forced-convection path through the nuts. The limited water uptake maintains the quality of the nuts. A forced-convection steam cooker conveying food products on a foraminous conveyor belt forces the steam mixture through the nuts. A preheater preheats the nuts so that they can be pasteurized in the steam cooker at a temperature of between 85 C. and 99 C. to reduce the dwell time and increase throughput.

The present invention relates to a steeping process for reducing the phytate in kernels of cereals and/or pulses using endogenous phythase. The kernels are steeped in water whilst avoiding germination and then dried. The steeped kernels and/or flour made therefrom are used in food, feed, pet-food, and/or cosmetics.

Disclosed is a cold-water soluble starch and a process for preparing same. Generally, the process comprises providing a hydroxyalkyl starch and applying a shearing force to the starch in an extruder in the presence of moisture, the force and the moisture each being sufficient to gelatinize at least substantially all of the granules of the starch to thereby form a sheared starch. The starch is heated to its gelatinization temperature after the starch has passed partially through the barrel of the extruder, with the moisture being maintained at a level sufficiently high to allow gelatinization but sufficiency low to protect the starch from becoming too sticky to extrude. The extruded starch product thus formed may be used in connection with a number of film-forming, coating, and other applications.