17 Jan 2020 --- For the past five years, PepsiCo, alongside a number of academic partners including Cranfield University in the UK, has been analyzing how to make the “perfect oat.” Backed by the UK government’s Innovate agency, the “Opti-Oat” project has used technology to analyze hundreds of crops, collecting over one million data points. This has resulted in the Oat Growth Guide, pegged as the “world’s first” benchmark for creating the perfect oat and guidance on how to nurture it. FoodIngredientsFirst speaks to Dr. Mac McWilliam, R&D Director of Agro Discovery at PepsiCo, regarding the free guide, which is expected to improve yields by 5 to 10 percent – elevating the crop’s sustainability factor.