Oats move beyond the breakfast aisle

Oats are firmly entrenched as a breakfast food and as a fill-in ingredient in bakery preparations. But that might change if Grainful, a company based in Ithaca, NY, is successful with its launch of its line of frozen entrees based on steel cut oats. Like many other stories in the food business, this is an example of serendipity: Jeannine Sacco, the chef for the Ithaca-based food company, came to this savory application when she wanted to make risotto and only had steel-cut oats in the cupboard.  Oats are nutritionally superior to rice, she said, and she was pleasantly surprised to see that the steel-cut variety functions similarly to rice in a risotto-like application. The company saw an unfilled market niche (there are apparently no other savory oat offerings in distribution) and launched four frozen entree flavors: Unstuffed Pepper, Andouille Sausage & Oats; Porcini Mushrooms and Chicken and Vegetarian Chili.