Cereal process and product

Claim 1

A process for agglomerating granular material having dissimilarly sized and shaped food particles of varying densities which comprises: charging said material and a discrete granular tackifying liquid-activatable composition to a first zone in a rotating vessel wherein said material is tumbled; centrifugally and continuously discharging from a rotating first spray head radially within said first zone a finely dispersed array of droplets of a first liquid, the rotational rate of the vessel being such in relation to the rate of discharge from the first spray head as to cause tumbling material to cascade into and be intercepted by said droplets and be coated thereby by migration through the particles and absorption therein, said coating action being promoted by paddles that rotate with said head and churn the particles undergoing said coating action by mechanically throwing the particles radially and axially; advancing the tumbling churned coated particles in said vessel to a second zone distinct from said first zone wherein they are contacted by a continuously and centrifugally finely dispersed discharged array of droplets of an adhesive second liquid from a second rotating spray head within said vessel whereupon the adhesive and tackifying properties of the previously coated particles are activated causing aggregation thereof, said second liquid having a composition different from the first liquid, said aggregating action being promoted by second paddles that rotate with said head and cause mechanical throwing of the coated particles radially and axially to effect churning, mixing and aggregation; and continuing rotation of said vessel to discharge the aggregates to an undulation zone wherein they are subjected to successive changes in direction and agglomerated into chunks of lower density than said aggregates.