Advantages of the Thermo-flaking process

The thermo-flaking process improves organoleptic, chemical and physical characteristics of cereals and legumes used in feed rations of all types of animals, making in such a way easier the digestibility and highly improving the productive performances of the rearing.

The transformation of cereal grains into flakes offers remarkable advantages, both nutritional and sanitary. Here’s some of them:

Outside modification of feed:
the reduction of caryopsis into sheets or flakes causes a high increase of the feed volume, favouring a longer ingestion. A larger surface is in contact with gastric juice, improving the digestion.

Molecular modification of starch:
the steam cooking process and the rolling of cereals act on the chemical and physical structure of starch, first favouring its transformation into dextrins and less complex sugars and then with the loss of its crystal structure, as a consequence of the gelatinization process.
These modifications mean an improvement of the feed digestibility, as well as a higher absorption rate, which can be quantified in approximately the double quantity, if compared with the dry milled grain.

Increase of feed digestibility:
the digestibility of starch is improved, thanks to its transformation into dextrins. In the case of maize the transformation goes from 34% in grinded cereal to 87% in flaked cereal, while for barley it goes from 61% to 81%.

Sanitary qualification of feed:
the steam-flaking process supplies an optimum sanitary qualification of cereals and legumes, as it eliminates all kinds of parasites and mycotoxins developped during a long storage.

High increase in palatability:
a sensible increase in the feed palatability brings remarkable advantages to obtain high level productions.

Improvement of satiety sensation:
advance of satiety sensation with increase in the insalivation, being the volume of flakes larger than those of normal grains, improves the digestive process and concurs to create that “power tampon” which is the principal corrective of the ruminative pH.

Elimination of antinourishing factors:
cooking at the optimum temperature is the only way which allows inserting cereals and legumes (soya bean, sorghum, etc.) into the rations, otherwise they would be unusable due to their contents of antinourishing factors.

Optimum utilisation of feed of a low biological value:
higher possibility to introduce in the rations those less expensive products that, through the flaking process, can highly increase their energetic production levels.