Puffed grain includes ancient puffed grains like popcorn as well as puffed rice. Modern puffed grains are often created using high temperature, pressure, and/or extrusion.
Ingredients for puffed rice can be as simple as rice and perhaps salt for taste. Other products like Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, or Corn Pops mix many ingredients into a homogeneous batter. The batter is then formed into shapes then toasted and/or extruded. This causes them to rise, but not puff or pop.
Puffed grains are popular as breakfast cereals and in the form of "rice cakes". While it is easy to recognize that the cereals came from whole grains, the expansion factor for rice cakes is even greater, and the final product is somewhat more homogeneous.
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High pressure puffed grain is created by placing whole grains under high pressure with steam. When the containment vessel's seal is suddenly broken, the entrained steam then flashes and bloats the endosperm of the kernel, increasing its volume to many times its original size.
Puffed rice or other grains are occasionally found as street food in China, Korea (called "ppeong twigi" 뻥튀기), and Japan (called "pong gashi" ポン菓子), where peddlers implement the puffing process using an integrated pushcart/puffer featuring a rotating steel pressure chamber heated over an open flame. The great booming sound produced by the release of pressure serves as advertising to attract customers.
Snacks and food products made from puffed grain include:
Research notebooks and papers of the inventor of the process of puffing rice and starches, Alexander P. Anderson, are available for research at the Minnesota Historical Society