Farm to Fork: Oats

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get Ontario oats from the fields to the grocery store? Below we’ve broken down the main steps of this process to help you lean where your food comes from.

Fork: Overnight oats

Step 6: Consumers, like you, purchase the rolled oats from the grocery store, bring it home and make a delicious meal with it!

Step 5: From the distribution center the oats are sent to food retailers and supermarkets where they are placed on the shelves.

Step 4: The oats are then packaged at the processing facility and sent either directly to a food retailer or to a food distribution center.

Step 3: When the oats are at the processing facility, they undergo cleaning and sizing processes (foreign objects such as other grains, rocks, and chaff are removed), are dehulled (the hull is separated from the grain), kilning (heat treatment to balance moisture), and flaking (the process of rolling the oats). This is the process that rolled oats undergo, want to learn more about the different kinds of oats? Click here!

Step 2: The merchant or cooperative then sells the oats to a food processor and arranges shipping of the grain from the storage location to the food processing facility.

Step 1: Oats are sold by the farmer to a merchant, or cooperative and is then stored either on farm in grain bins or at a grain elevator. Once the oats arrive to the cooperative, they are checked to ensure that the oats meet certain quality standards.

Farm: Oats are harvested from Ontario fields in late August to early September