Bran based ingredient for foodstuffs

A method of obtaining an edible particulate material claimed claim comprising from 80% to 100% by weight based on total weight of the material of a processable, microbially released, flavor acceptable bran-like material, comprising the following parameters:

• (i) the bran like material has a mean particle size by volume (Vol. MPS) of from 5 to 100 microns, (ii) the bran like material has a volume particle size distribution (Vol. PSD) having D90,3 less than or equal to 350 microns, and D50,3 less than or equal to 50 microns, and (iii) the bran like material has a mean particle sphericity as measured by a Smean of greater than or equal to 0.75, (iv) where processable denotes the bran-like material has an oil holding capacity (OHC) of from 0.7 to 1.5, (v) where microbially released denotes that the bran-like material satisfies the criteria that Samonella is not detected in a 25 g sample of the edible material, and (vi) where flavor acceptable denotes that the bran-like material has:
• a lipase activity (LA) of less than or equal to 2 U/g, a peroxidase activity (PA) of less than or equal to 2 U/g and comprising the steps of:
• (a) providing a precursor bran-like material which has an unacceptable microbial load thereon that does not satisfy the criteria set out in feature (v) claim;
• (b) treating the precursor material from step (a) so that after treatment the resultant material is both microbially released and flavor acceptable claim;
• (c) milling the material from step (a) and/or (b) to obtain microbially released, processable particles of material comprising bran-like material having all the properties (i) to (vi) claimed claim.