ALPISTE PROCESSING FUNCTIONALITY
Alpiste (Canary seed) is a specialty grain recently approved for human consumption in Canada, the United States and the European Union. Preliminary work has been conducted on alpiste’s milling performance, flour functionalities, and extruded snack and cereal product opportunities.
FLOUR & FLAKES
Roller milling is used to produce whole grain flour and high quality, intact flakes from the alpiste (Canary seed) grains.
FRACTIONS
Alpiste (Canary seed) can be dehulled and milled to fine and coarse fractions by hammer milling and pin milling without any pre-treatment of the speciality grain. In general, except for water hydration capacity, the pin milled flours exhibited higher functionalities compared to hammer milled flours.
EXTRUSIONS
Alpiste (Canary seed) flours that have been pin milled or hammer milled can replace corn flour in extruded products to improve the nutritional quality while maintaining product characteristics. Combinations of corn flour and alpiste (Canary seed) flour at 50/50 or 75/25 give higher quality extrudates and is suitable for puffs, crisps and others that don't require expansion (i.e. wavy chips, pasta, compact breakfast cereals, crackers, etc.).
SHELF LIFE
The shelf-life is 15 months for the dehulled grain and eight months for the flour.