Fun and Interesting Facts about Cereals

History of breakfast cereals, as we know them today, is relatively short (circa 150 years) but there are still some interesting facts that could be told about them.

• The cereal industry in the United States uses over 400 million kilograms of sugar per year.
• Kellogg's Corn Flakes were eaten by astronauts aboard Apollo 11 which made the first landing on the Moon. The cereal was mixed with fruit and pressed into cubes to make them easier to eat in the conditions of zero gravity.
• Term “cereals” comes from Ceres, ancient Roman goddess of agriculture.
• Kellogg's breakfast cereals “Honey Smacks” and “Golden Crisp” have more than 50% sugar.
• 50% of Americans eat cereals for breakfast every day.
• The first cereal was so-called “Granula”. It had to be soaked in water whole night before it could be prepared for eating.
• Advertisement of cereals started targeting children after the Second World War.
• Americans eat 50 kg of cereal per person every year or 160 bowls.
• Today's breakfast cereals that are healthier are more often targeted at adults.
• The most popular items sold in grocery stores are milk and carbonated beverages. After them come breakfast cereals.
• The first mass-marketed commercial item to offer a prize was Corn Flakes.

• One of the predecessors of breakfast cereal was popcorn which American colonists used to eat with cream and sugar.
• Puffed cereal is made in pressure cookers. The first pressure cooker for this purpose was made from a converted cannon that was used in the Spanish-American war.
• Breakfast cereals were invented in 19th century as an answer to a very unhealthy eating habits of the people of that time and as bland food that will calm the passions according to the Seventh-day Adventists which invented it.
• Cheerios were first called “Cheerioats” but Quaker Oates complained so the name was changed in 1945.
• Quaker Oats gave an interesting prize in their cereals in the 1950s. As an advertisement for their cereals and a CBS’s TV show “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon” they gave a deed of land for one square inch of Yukon land for every box top from their cereal.
• John Draper (AKA Captain Crunch, named after Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal mascot) used plastic whistle that was a prize in Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal to make free phone calls in the 1970s.
• Cereals are a rich source of fiber.
• Kellogg's, General Mills, Post, and Quaker Oats are the four greatest manufacturers of breakfast cereals.
• Fruit_Brute_Cereal "Fruit Brute” was a brand of cereals sold in 1970s by General Mills and later discontinued. Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has some of the boxes of original “Fruit Brute” and he uses them in his films as a director's trademark.
• The first company to have and advertisement on the Times Square billboard in New York was Kellogg's.
• Battle Creek, Michigan is considered the "Cereal Capital of the World" because it is the hometown of Kellogg and Post, two of the four largest cereal manufacturers in the world.
• The full name of “Cap'n Crunch” mascot is Horatio Magellan Crunch. His place of birth is Crunch Island in the Sea of Milk.
• Over 2.7 billion packages of cereal are sold every year.
• The first “monster cereal” produced by General Mills in the 1970s was “Count Chocula”. It is still produced today but it is sold only around Halloween.
• One bushel of wheat (36 liters) can produce 53 boxes of breakfast cereals.
• United States are only 4th in world-wide cereal consumption. Before them are Ireland, England and Australia.