Cooked cereal dough products are provided that are fortified with at least
a 0.65% calcium (dry weight basis) at least a major portion of which is supplied
by calcium phosphate salts having a median particle size of 2 to 15 m. Dried
cereal finished products such as Ready-to-Eat breakfast cereals are fabricated
from cooked cereal doughs that can comprise even lightly colored cereal materials
such as rice and/or corn (maize) and minor levels of other conventional cereal
ingredients and calcium phosphate. Methods for preparing such calcium fortified
cooked cereal compositions and dried cereal finished food products essentially
comprise: (a) providing a calcium fortified cooked cereal dough or mass containing
at least 0.65% calcium (dry weight basis) at least a portion of which is supplied
by calcium phosphate; (b) forming the lightly colored calcium fortified cereal
dough into pieces; and (c) drying the pieces to form the present rice based finished
food products fortified with high levels of calcium. Preferred are puffed RTE cereal
pieces prepared by direct expansion from a twin screw cooker extruder.
