Breakfast cereal
Breakfast cereal, breakfast cereals or cereal are grain products that are infused with water, milk or fruit juice and produce a slurry. Traditional products are cornflakes, oatmeal and cereal. Today, the food industry produces a variety of other, mostly heavily sugared products.
Types and ingredients
Among the commercially available products can be distinguished in various ways. Main ingredient cereals are oats, wheat, corn, spelled, barley, rye and rice. In addition, pseudo- cereals such as amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat are used, the names are unprotected and are not described in the German Food Code.
Muesli
Ready cereal mixtures usually consist of oatmeal, flakes from other grains and other ingredients. They can contain all listed in the following products.
Fruit Muesli
Fruit Muesli also contains dried fruit, such as raisins and other dried fruit.
Knuspermüsli
For the Knuspereffekt ( Frequent name component english Crisp ) the oatmeal or other components are coated with sugar.
Knuspermüsli
Crispy cereal products
Flakes
Flakes are produced in two different methods. For the cereal grains are crushed in the conventional method. This gives rise to the so-called Grits, cooked with malt, sugar and salt and then rolled into flakes and roasted. This corresponds to the classical production of corn flakes.
Flakes can be prepared by extrusion. In this method, a mass of corn grits are cooked, pressed under pressure through an extruder. The extrudates are then often called Extruded cereals.
Cornflakes
Cornflakes are made from cooked, rolled and then dried corn. They are often coated with sugar, for example, Frosted Flakes. In addition to flavor reasons they stay crisper longer characterized in milk.
Extrudates
Extruded Crisps with Chocolate
Puffed cereal flakes or
- Puffed Rice: Example Krispies
- Amaranth: Puffed Amaranth is the eponymous part of many Amaranth muesli, whose main ingredient is oatmeal.
- Quinoa
- Wheat: Example Smacks, Wheats
Puffed wheat
Puffed quinoa
Shredded flakes and cereals
Other Ingredients
In addition to many grain products contain sugar or glucose syrup (some up to 50 %), cocoa, as well as food additives, such as vitamins, food colors, flavors. Cereals also contain dried fruit and nuts.
Criticism
Many of the products are industrially processed convenience foods to a high degree. Specific criticisms of some products are:
- High sugar content - In addition to taste carries the sugar coating to the fact that the flakes remain in the milk longer crispy and soft slower
- The cinnamon flavor is often used contained partially high coumarin values
- In contrast, the health benefits of milk, cereals and vitamins is in advertising and on packaging often emphasized, while the traffic light labeling would often red
Stiftung Warentest came in 2008 during a test of breakfast cereals to the conclusion none lend itself as a " healthy start to the day ": "Almost all belong to their high sugar content in the candy shelf, not in the cereal department. " Nutrition information was in many cases euphemistic, because they gave the impression of the sugar content is not as high as it actually is. This criticism relates not only to products from Germany; the sugar content is too high worldwide. It was also criticized that the products " hardly wholemeal " and only " little fiber " contained. 27 of 30 products in the test were artificially enriched with vitamins, what children could even be harmful. The enrichment with calcium was unnecessary, since the products are usually consumed with milk. Only one of 30 products reached therefore in the nutritional quality of a "satisfactory", the rest were just " adequate" and "inadequate". Therefore, the Stiftung Warentest decided at the Council: "As a daily breakfast for children these cereals are not recommended. "
Manufacturer
- Dr. Oetker GmbH ( Bielefeld)
- Peter Kolln ( Elmshorn)
- H. & J. Brüggen (Lübeck )
- Kellogg Company (USA )
- Nestlé ( Switzerland headquarters )
- Kraft Foods ( USA Headquarters )
- General Mills (USA)