Included in pet, racehorses and zoo animal feeds where ingredients mixed whole rather than ground and pelleted. They are added to enhance visual attractiveness of other mixes as well as their nutritional value.

Micronised prodcuts provide improved value over feeding the same materials uncooked and is therefore particularly beneficial in starter diets for young animals and poultry.

The micronising process nutritionally improves peas, inactivating enzymes and anti-nutritional factors without losing lysine or other heat sensitive amino acids.

It has a sterilising effect and replaces the pea's normal astringency with a pleasant toasted flavour. The peas are cooked by infra-red energy produced by burning a mixture of air and either LPG or natural gas as it's forced through perforated ceramic tiles.

They are then rolled while they are still plastic from the steam trapped inside the seedcoat, producing flattened, ridged flakes. There are seven or eight major pulse micronisers. The largest sell most or all of their peas onwards. Others micronise mostly for inclusion in their own blended feeds. Large blues are preferred and the colour needs to be good and the excellent quality produced by the UK micronisers has led to a growing pet food market for this material. Large Blues are preferred and the colour needs to be good and the excellent quality produced by the UK michronisers has led to a growing pet food market for this material.