Cereal Savvy

Overview of Cereals: History, Importance, Production, Usage, and Wheat Kernel Composition

• Cereals are fruits of cultivated grasses that belong to the family Graminae and include wheat, corn, rice, maize, sorghum, barley, oat, rye, and tritical.
• Wheat is the earliest cereal used for human food processing and the first to grow on earth, originating in the Euphrates river valley.
• Cereals have been cultivated by humans for thousands of years and are successful due to their production, transportation, storage, and utilization.
• Cereals are an excellent source of starch, contain proteins such as gluten and zein, and have a little amount of quality oil like corn oil and rice bran oil.
• Cereals are also a good source of fiber, making whole cereal flour a healthy option.
• Cereals are the cheapest source of energy and are grown all over the world, covering 5.3% of the entire land surface.
• The total world production of major cereals in 1987-89 was 1784 Metric ton, which was sufficient for the whole population at about 960g per head per day.
• The usage of cereals includes 49% for human food, 37% for animal feed, 10% for processing, and 4% for seed.
• The Green Revolution in 1977 increased cereal production almost double, with wheat availability in India increasing from 23.4 Kg/person to 52.5 Kg/person.
• Wheat has three main varieties grown: hexaploid, tetraploid, and diploid.
• The wheat kernel consists of the bran, germ, and endosperm. Bran is the outer protective layer, germ is the embryonic wheat plant, and endosperm is the starchy or storage portion containing protein like gluten.
• The flour commonly used contains 28% less bran than whole wheat flour, as bran is high in fiber and ash, and the color of flour becomes dark brown.