🥣 Breakfast cereal

Breakfast cereal is a ready-to-eat grain product made of flaked grain. In Kellogg’s 1896 patent the grain may be wheat (preferred), barley, oats, corn or other grains: it is soaked, boiled, rolled into very thin flakes and baked until crisp. The first cold breakfast cereal, Granula, was perfected by the American James Caleb Jackson in Dansville in 1863; it was not ready-to-eat in the modern sense and had to be soaked in milk, for at least 20 minutes and preferably overnight.

Kellogg’s patent No. 558,393 (filed on 31 May 1895, granted on 14 April 1896) describes the process like this: the grain is soaked for about 8 to 12 hours, boiled for about an hour, cooled, partly dried and passed through cold rollers to make very thin flakes, which are then steamed and baked or roasted until dry and crisp. In 1906 his brother Will Kellogg established the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company. Around 1900 the Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner created muesli, served in his sanatorium in Zurich: oats soaked in water, grated apple, lemon juice, condensed milk and grated nuts.

According to USDA, 100 g of plain corn flakes has 365 kcal, 79.5 g of carbohydrates, 6.4 g of protein, 1.6 g of fat, 3.5 g of fiber, 4 mg of calcium and 703 mg of sodium. Whole milk has far more calcium: 113 mg per 100 g.

Breakfast cereal or muesli? They are easy to mix up, but the process differs. Breakfast cereal is grain, wheat in Kellogg’s preferred recipe but also barley, oats or corn, soaked, boiled, rolled into very thin flakes and baked until crisp, so it is ready to eat. Muesli began around 1900 as Bircher-Benner’s dish of oats soaked in water with grated apple, lemon juice, condensed milk and nuts. Corn flakes are therefore only one kind of cereal, and the USDA figures of 365 kcal and 703 mg of sodium per 100 g apply to plain corn flakes, not to every pack.

On a pack, look for “breakfast cereal”, “cornflakes” or the grain named in the product name, such as oats or wheat. The nutrition table gives values per 100 g, so compare like with like: the USDA figures on this page are for plain corn flakes only, and other cereals and muesli differ. Check the energy, sodium or salt and calcium lines on the label. Cereals are sold in the cereal aisle of a supermarket, in discount shops and, for muesli, in health food shops.

Why it matters to you. Plain flakes have almost no calcium and plenty of sodium. Different kinds of cereal and muesli have different compositions, so check the label: the USDA entry applies only to plain corn flakes.