Puffed Grain Market

Puffed Grain: Introduction

The snacks industry is one of the major sector of the global food industry. The puffed grain is a pre-cooked RTE (ready-to-eat) material that is used in several specialty foods, snack foods, and as an ingredient base for the development of numerous supplementary food products. Puffing imparts satisfactory desirable aroma, flavor, and taste to the snacks. The puffed grain is prepared by applying high pressure, temperature, and extrusion technology. There are several techniques of puffing being applied in conventional methodologies such as sand, dry heat, salt-treated, gun puffing, hot air popping, hot oil popping as well as microwave heating. Puffed snacks products are very common in India however puffed wheat is not as popular, this is mainly due to the limited manufacturing of puffed wheat, and the other leading reason is the less popularity of puffed wheat snacks in the Indian market. The wheat based-puffed snacks are very popular in the U.S.A. and China. In the United States, it is primarily consumed as a breakfast cereal. Due to these key factors, the market for puffed grain is anticipated to grow in the forecast years.

Rising Preference for Healthy Snacking Propelling the Demand for Puffed Grains

The rising concern regarding healthy snacks across the globe is the key factor that is increasing the demand for puffed grains in the snacks industry around the world. The growing obesity and is one of the factors due to which consumers are looking for a healthier snacking option. The puffed grains are produced all across the globe. Puffed grains are enriched with carbohydrates and proteins except for lysine. Puffed grains are 10 times the volume of normal grain and have less in calories as well as fat content and therefore an ideal product for weight watchers. These puffed grains based products easily get absorbed and digested quickly that act as one of the aspects of popularity among the costumers.

 Puffed Grains Market: Segmentation

The puffed grains market can be segmented based on nature, product type, application, and sales channel.

Based on nature, the puffed grains market can be segmented as –

• Organic
• Conventional

Based on product type, the puffed grains market can be segmented as –

• Amaranth
• Corn
• Millet
• Spelt
• Quinoa
• Rice
• Wheat
• Others (Sorghum, Ragi e.t.c.)

Based on application, the puffed grains market can be segmented as –

• Food Processing Industry
  • Bakery
  • Snacks
  • Breakfast Cereals
  • Others
• Food Service Providers
• Retail

Based on sales channel, the puffed grains market can be segmented as –

• B2B
• B2C
  • Hypermarkets/ Supermarkets
  • Convenience Stores
  • Specialty Stores
  • Independent Small Groceries
  • Online Retailing

Puffed Grain: Key Players

Some of the key manufacturers of global puffed grain market include General Mills, Inc., Rude Health, Wise Foods Inc, Grain Basket Foods, Nurture Inc, The Kraft Heinz Company, Rude Health, Kallo foods Limited, Wyandot, Inc., The Kellogg Company, SNAK-KING CORP, Hometown Food Company, and Good Grain among others.

Puffed Grain: Opportunities & Product Launch

There have been several recent advancements in the puffed grain varieties with flavors, and taste that is being introduced into the market. The key players operating in global puffed grain market are using existing technology such as extrusion, salt popping, oil/ sand popping methods as per the origin for producing puffed grain products and are also incorporating several variations to surge the health image of puffed grains.

For instance, in December 2019, General Mills, Inc., has started a joint-venture with The Hershey Co. to offer three new puffed cereal. These two players formerly work together on a number of offerings, such as Reese’s Puffs, Cocoa Puffs, Hershey’s Cookies and Creme Fillows Cereals.

In January 2018, Rude Health launched Puffed spelt in its breakfast category, the product contains a very high amount of fibre and it doesn’t contain any additional salt.