Cooked cereal dough products fortified with calcium and method of preparation

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 μm. 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.