Oat groat fractionation process

In a process of fractionating oats comprising:

• I. obtaining dried, dehulled oat groats;
• Ii. grinding the oat groats to form an oat flour containing a dense, fine fraction of regularly shaped particles and a light, coarse fraction of irregularly shaped particles wherein the coarse fraction comprises oat bran, oat gum, oat protein and oat starch;
• Iii. recovering the flour;
• Iv. separating the coarse fraction and the fine fraction;
• V. recovering the coarse fraction;
• the improvement further comprising:
• a. forming a heated, basic slurry of the recovered coarse fraction of the oat flour in a liquid;
• b. agitating the heated, basic slurry to carry out an extraction and to form a bran fraction and a soluble fraction containing the oat gum, the oat protein and the oat starch by the extraction of the coarse fraction;
• c. recovering the oat bran from the slurry while leaving the oat gum, the oat protein, and the oat starch in the soluble fraction to thereby form an alkaline extract of the soluble fraction;
• d. chilling the alkaline extract to a temperature in the range from above the freezing point of the alkaline extract to ambient temperature;
• e. acidifying the chilled alkaline extract to form a precipitate of oat protein;
• f. removing the protein precipitate and the starch from the extract to form a supernatant liquid containing the oat gum to thereby recover the protein precipitate and the starch;
• g. neutralizing the supernatant liquid;
• h. heating the neutralized supernatant liquid to at least 90.degree. C.;
• and
• i. recovering the oat gum.