Breakfast cereal

These processed, precooked, packaged cereals are most often served in a quick and simple preparation with dairy products, traditionally cow's milk.

Although many plain wheat-, oat- and corn-based cereals exist, a great many other varieties are highly sweetened, and some brands include freeze-dried fruit as a sweet element.

Native Americans had found a way to make ground corn palatable, later called grits (from the Old English word grēot, meaning "gravel").

[7] Ferdinand Schumacher, a German immigrant, began the cereals revolution in 1854 with a hand oats grinder in the back room of a small store in Akron, Ohio.

Schumacher, the innovator; Stuart, the manager and financial leader; and Crowell, the creative merchandiser, advertiser, and promoter, doubled sales every decade.

Crowell's intensive advertising campaign in the 1920s and 1930s featured promotions with such celebrities as Babe Ruth, Max Baer, and Shirley Temple.

The cereal never became popular, due to the inconvenient necessity of tenderizing the heavy bran and graham nuggets by soaking them overnight.

[12][13][14] George H. Hoyt created Wheatena circa 1879, during an era when retailers would typically buy cereal (the most popular being cracked wheat, oatmeal, and cerealine) in barrel lots, and scoop it out to sell by the pound to customers.

Son of an Adventist factory owner in Battle Creek, Kellogg was encouraged by his church to train in medicine at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City in 1875.

After graduating, he became medical superintendent at the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, established in 1866 by the Adventists to offer their natural remedies for illness.

In Battle Creek sanitarium guests found fresh air, exercise, rest, hydrotherapy, a strict vegetarian diet, and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea.

William Kellogg discarded the health food concept, opting for heavy advertising and commercial taste appeal.

[17][18][19] The second major innovator in the cereal industry was Charles W. Post, a salesman who was admitted to Kellogg's sanitarium as a patient in the late 1800s.

The cereal, and the Sunny Jim character, achieved wide success in Britain, at its peak in 1930 selling 12.5 million packages in one year.

[23] Quaker Oats entered the market with Puffed Rice and Wheat Berries it had introduced at the 1904 World Fair, with raw grains shot with hot compressed air from tubes, popping up to many times their size.

[23] In the 1920s, national advertising in magazines and radio broadcasts played a key role in the emergence of the fourth big cereal manufacturer, General Mills.

After tempering, steaming, cracking wheat, and processing it with syrup, sugar, and salt, it was prepared in a pressure cooker for rolling and then dried in an electric oven.

The new firm expanded packaged food sales with heavy advertising, including sponsorship of radio programs such as "Skippy", "Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy", and baseball games.

Further product innovation and diversification brought total General Mills sales to over $500 million annually (18% in packaged foods) by the early 1950s.

[19] After World War II, the big breakfast cereal companies—now including General Mills, who entered the market in 1924 with Wheaties—increasingly started to target children.

The flour was refined to remove fiber, which at the time was considered to undermine digestion and absorption of nutrients, and sugar was added to improve the flavor for children.

A January 2025 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine examined cereal purchases from 77,000 U.S. households over nine years alongside Nielsen ratings data on advertising exposure.

The study found that ads targeting adults had negligible impact, while those aimed at children strongly correlated with increased purchases of sugary cereals in households with kids.

[31] The processing of grains helps to separate the bran and cereal germ, but may remove nutrients, such as B vitamins and dietary fiber.

These cereals are targeted for consumers who suffer from gluten-related disorders, such as celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy, among others.

Ireland mixes porridge with whiskey as a cure for the common cold while England references the dish to the royal family and their traditions.

In China, porridges such as rice congee, or those made with other ingredients (including corn meal or millet) are often eaten for breakfast.

Eating breakfast cereal has become more important in China and specifically Hong Kong due to the increase of work and decrease in time.

[38] In Greece, cornmeal is poured into boiling milk to create a cereal of a thick consistency which is often served to young children.

Porridge brands unique to South Africa include Jungle Oats and Bokomo Maltabella (made from malted sorghum).