Recovery of aleurone-rich flour from bran

A process for finishing bran, comprising the steps of:

• (a) processing grain;
• (b) recovering aleurone-rich bran from the grain, wherein the aleurone-rich bran comprises aleurone components adhered to bran components;
• (c) processing the aleurone-rich bran in a milling machine, wherein the milling machine has a rotor assembly, wherein the rotor assembly has a length, an irregular cylindrical shape and a radial outermost surface along its length, wherein the milling machine has a basket assembly that has an open central longitudinal portion in which the rotor assembly is received, wherein a milling chamber is defined between the radial outermost surface of the rotor assembly and the basket assembly for receiving the aleurone-rich bran, wherein the basket assembly includes a screen with openings, wherein the milling machine detaches a portion of the aleurone components from the bran components by compressing the aleurone-rich bran and/or by scraping the aleurone components off of the bran components while the aleurone-rich bran is in the milling chamber;
• (d) separating the aleurone components from the bran components with the milling machine by passing the aleurone components through the openings in the screen in the basket assembly;
• (e) recovering the aleurone components from the milling machine;
• and
• (f) recovering the bran components from the milling machine without passing a significant amount of the bran components through the openings in the screen in the basket assembly.

A process for recovering aleurone from grain, the grain comprising endosperm, aleurone and bran, the process comprising the steps of:

• separating a major portion of the endosperm from the aleurone and bran;
• recovering a bran stream that is rich in aleurone, wherein the aleurone is generally attached to the bran;
• providing a milling machine that has a rotor unit and a screen unit spaced from the rotor unit, wherein the rotor unit has a radial-outermost surface, wherein a milling chamber is defined between the radial-outermost surface of the rotor unit and the screen unit, and wherein the screen unit has a plurality of holes;
• feeding the bran stream into the milling chamber;
• detaching a portion of the aleurone from the bran inside the milling chamber by squeezing the bran stream between the rotor unit and the screen unit and/or by scraping the aleurone off of the bran, thereby forming a mixture comprising an aleurone product and a bran product;
• and
• recovering the aleurone product from the milling chamber through the plurality of holes in the screen unit.

A process for reducing the amount of endosperm, including aleurone, in a bran stream recovered from a cereal-grain milling process, wherein the bran stream comprises bran components and endosperm components adhered to the bran components, the process comprising the steps of:

• feeding the bran stream into a milling machine that has a rotor unit and a screen unit surrounding the rotor unit, wherein the rotor unit has an irregular cylindrical shape and a radial-outermost surface, wherein a milling chamber having an irregular annular shape is defined between the screen unit and the radial-outermost surface of the rotor unit, and wherein the screen unit has a plurality of holes;
• detaching a portion of the endosperm components from the bran components inside the milling chamber by squeezing the bran stream between the rotor unit and the screen unit and/or by scraping the endosperm components off of the bran components, thereby forming a mixture comprising an endosperm product and a bran product;
• recovering the endosperm product from the milling chamber through the plurality of holes in the screen unit;
• and
• recovering the bran product from the milling chamber, wherein the bran product does not pass through the plurality of holes in the screen unit.