Cereals 1

Cereals
Wilfried Seibel, Detmold, Germany
Okkyung Kim Chung, USDA-ARS, Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, Manhattan, Kansas,
USA
Dorian Weipert, Detmold, Germany
Seok-Ho Park, USDA-ARS, Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, Manhattan, Kansas, USA

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5.1.1. Wheat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2. Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5.1.2. Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1. Breeding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5.1.3. Maize (Corn) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2. Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5.1.4. Other Cereals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3. Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5.2. Importance of Whole Cereals,
3. Nutritional and Technological Refined Products, and
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Fortification for Nutrition,
3.1. Structure of Cereal Grains . . . . 8 Health, and Requirement . . . . . 21
3.2. Composition of Cereals-Primary 6. Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Constituents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 6.1. Dry-Milling Process . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2.1. Starch (→ Starch) . . . . . . . . . . . 9 6.1.1. Wheat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2.2. Proteins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 6.1.2. Rye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2.3. Pentosans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 6.1.3. Maize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2.4. Lipids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6.2. Dehulling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2.5. Secondary Constituents . . . . . . . . 12 6.3. Wet-Milling Process . . . . . . . . . 28
3.2.5.1. Cellulose (→ Cellulose) . . . . . . . 12 6.4. Extrusion Process . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.2.5.2. β-Glucan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 7. Specific Properties and Use
3.2.5.3. Lignins (→ Lignin) . . . . . . . . . . 12 of Grains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2.5.4. Lignans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
7.1. Wheat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2.5.5. Vitamins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
7.2. Rye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2.5.6. Mineral Matters and Phytate . . . . 13
7.3. Triticale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.5.7. Tannins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7.4. Barley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4. Standards in Grain Trade . . . . . 14
7.5. Oats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1. Test Weight (TW) . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.2. 1000 Kernel Weight (TKW) . . . . 15 7.6. Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.3. Besatz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.7. Sorghum and Millets . . . . . . . . 35
4.4. Dockage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.8. Maize (Corn) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.5. Foreign Material . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.9. Pseudocereals . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.6. Sprout Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.9.1. Buckwheat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.7. Chemical Characteristics that 7.9.2. Amaranth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Determine Wheat Quality . . . . . 15 7.9.3. Quinoa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5. Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8. Economic Aspects and Outlook . 38
5.1. Human Food and Animal Feed . . 16 9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

1. Introduction again formed the eating habits of the people liv-

Cereals are the oldest cultivated plants and have
been grown since prehistoric times. The popu-
lation of each continent prefers to cultivate ce-
real varieties adapted to the climate and these
ing there. Wheat and rye originated in the Near
East and have spread throughout Europe from
where they were taken to North America. Asia
is the cradle of rice and barley, Africa is the na-

c 2006 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

10.1002/14356007.a06 093.pub2
2 Cereals
tive land of millet and sorghum, and South and
Central America gave birth to maize. Cereals
also have made possible permanent settlements
of humans through the production and storage of
food instead of hunting and gathering. Among
all edible plants, the cereals provide the most
nutritive and, therefore, the most important food
sources for people over longer periods of time.
Both the ability of cereals to adapt to a variety
of soils and climate conditions and the selective
work of humans over the centuries have estab-
lished cereals as the basis for living in many
regions of the earth.
2. Production
The production of cereals has increased over the
centuries, but the most significant increase has
occurred since the 1950s. This increase is doubt-
less a result of interaction of acreage, breeding,
and tilling but the breeding seems to have been
the strongest factor in this success, given the
high production figures. For example, the yield
of wheat in Germany in the last 50 years has in-
creased by 1.5 dt/ha (decitons per hectare) annu-
ally. Selecting and releasing new high yielding
cultivars is the main contribution to the increased
productivity.
The spread of cereals worldwide, along with
the amounts produced is shown in Table 1. On
about a third of the worldwide arable land over 2
× 109 t of cereals were produced annually bet-
ween 1999 and 2001 [1]. This is more than three
times the total production of roots and tubers,
the second most important food for humans and
more than the sixfold tonnage of potatoes pro-
duced. Besides this other agricultural products
are low in dry matter and protein content which
makes them less efficient food sources. Pulses
also play an important role, but in comparison
to cereals their importance is marginal at best.
These figures underscore the significance of ce-
reals in nourishment and in the fight against
hunger. Maize, rice, and wheat are the most-
cultivated cereals, in almost equal parts in the
world, and the remaining 13 % of produced ce-
reals is shared among barley, oats, and the small-
grain cereals, sorghum and millet. In this con-
text, rice can be cropped twice or even three
times a year as the climatic conditions and the
technique of producing layers of developed rice
plants allow. Over time and because of the in-
crease in living standards, rye seems to have
completely lost its relevance; growing rye for
traditional bread is limited to a few countries in
Europe. In some traditional rice-growing coun-
tries, rice is losing importance due to an increase
in wheat consumption.
Cereals production in total and in different
parts of the world has also changed dramati-
cally since the 1950s. North America was an im-
portant producer and exporter of wheat, as was
South America. After the Second World War, ce-
real production, particularly of wheat, has gen-
erally increased rapidly, but producer countries
have shifted. Asia was once a buyer of wheat on
the world market, but has since became a con-
siderable producer, of about half of the world’s
cereal grains. Europe was also a buyer of Amer-
ican and Canadian wheat, particularly because
of its excellent quality, but today Europe and
the European Union (EU; initially 15, now 25
states) alone produces more high-quality wheat
than North America. The ample supply in the
world cereal market means prices are rather low,
and trade with cereals is difficult and not very
profitable. The prices are given in international
dollars ($), a hypothetical currency unit, that has
the same purchasing power as the US dollar.
In addition to the caloric and nutritive value
from cereals derived from starch and protein,
other constituents have been recognized to pro-
vide health benefits. The contents of dietary
fiber, minerals, vitamins, and phytohormones,
which are preventative against certain types of
cancer, has improved the image of cereal grains.
The use of whole kernel flours and meals in bak-
ery products and of various grains in breakfast
cereals is recommended.
In contrast to wheat, a significant portion of
rice and maize, barley and oats, all highly esti-
mated foods, are used as animal feed. In this con-
text, cereals alone do not provide a complete diet
and must be supplemented by the consumption
of proteins from animal or plant (e.g., soybean)
sources.
2.1. Breeding
From the beginning of unconscious selection by
early farmers to the advanced targeted selection
by today’s breeders, humans have participated
 Cereals 3
Table 1. Cereal production worldwide in 1000 t (average of 1999 – 2001 [1])

Region Wheat Rice Maize Barley Rye Oats Millet Sorghum Total cereals

Africa 15 953 17 034 42 987 2949 30 265 13 169 19 342 113 850
N. America 86 811 11 479 274 016 19 207 515 5319 336 19 892 418 230
S. America 20 489 20 852 56 903 1408 128 1204 42 4812 105 906
Asia 253 368 547 621 159 621 19 673 986 1155 9882 12 141 1 010 120
Europe 186 265 3185 70 736 85 185 19 279 16 621 903 724 369 945
EU (of 25) 105 654 2568 65 419 47 882 10 947 8435 14 629 234 289
EU (of 15) 95 035 1382 38 454 43 184 5691 6307 – 620 191 057
Oceania 23 991 1438 563 6741 21 1195 53 2042 36 745
Total 586 908 601 608 604 560 135 162 20 959 25 758 28 009 57 943 2 081 878
% Total 28.5 29.2 29.3 6.6 1.0 1.3 1.4 2.8
cereals
Price, $/t 144.8 335.9 128.1 111.2 85.3 112.8 – –

in the alteration of cereal genomes for over 10
000 years. Breeding has focused upon increas-
ing grain yield which remains the main selected
trait to this day. To obtain 1 g of dehulled kernel,
more than 500 kernels of wheat ancestors such as
sweet grass (Glyceria fluitans) or more than 120
kernels of rye brome (Bromus secalinus) were
needed. Today 1 g of cultivated barley or wheat
comes from not more than 35 kernels. Since in
most parts of Europe and North America hunger
has been overcome, breeders have focused on se-
lection of traits that improve technological qual-
ity. Cultivars with improved milling and baking
properties, as well as improved behavior in pro-
cessing to food and nonfood products have been
created. Particularly in nonfood applications, ce-
real products are used today to replace mineral
oil and other more precious materials from non-
renewable sources. These improvements came
from increasing the protein content in grain by
intensifying the nitrogen uptake from soil, by
changing the composition of proteins and starch,
and also by changing the structure or hardness of
kernels. Monoculture, i.e., growing of one cereal
cultivar over large areas, has led to dissemina-
tion of pests of bacterial, fungal, and insect ori-
gin. Therefore, crop protection was necessary
for both the yield and the sanitation of stored
grains. Breeders have developed cereal culti-
vars resistant to pests, and abiotic stress from
drought, freezing (winter hardness), and prehar-
vest sprouting. These inbred resistances have re-
duced production costs and have ensured a high
crop yield free from chemical pesticides. How-
ever, resistance does not protect from new races
of pests, which seem to be more virulent and do
more harm to plants and grain. For this reason
breeding against pests will never end.
Resistance to preharvest sprouting is essen-
tial in regions with an abundance of rain that can
damage grain before harvest. This resistance can
be achieved in two ways, by breeding to achieve
a high level of abscisic acid (ABA, a phytohor-
mone controlling the synthesis of enzymes ini-
tiating germination) and low levels of gibberel-
lic acid (GA, a hormone that promotes germi-
nation), also by breeding to improve shape and
form of ears, which will reduce water uptake dur-
ing grain ripening. Besides this, the stability and
strength of stems and whole plants can prevent
lodging, thus protecting from undesired water
uptake in ears. ABA governs dormancy, a state
in which the grain is viable, but kept from germi-
nating. Dormancy is also caused by presence of
lipids and flavonoids, substances that affect the
grain color. Influenced by time, light, and tem-
perature, dormancy will break and its duration
can be shortened. In general, rye has virtually no
dormancy, wheat dormancy is not longer than a
few weeks after harvest, and dormancy of plants
with a high lipid content lasts several months.
In arid regions, cultivars with elevated enzyme
activity ensure the production of baked products
without the addition of enzymes.
In selection work the breeders use different
techniques. The oldest technique is crossing two
or more cultivars as parents to obtain a new
cultivar with desired properties. This is a long
process without guarantee of success, because
quite a number of genetic combinations result
and the crosses must be screened for the desired
results, propagated and multiplied to obtain seed
for continued planting, and material to be tested
4 Cereals
for quality. A new cultivar requires 10 or more
years before it can be released on the market.
Over decades of selection breeders have de-
veloped new methods, which have shortened the
process while improving the success of new va-
rieties. Using the technique of producing hy-
brids, two proven parents of hybrids pollinate
free (male or father plants) in the field to produce
seed (on a female or mother plant) with desired
and controlled properties. The male flowers con-
taining pollen from mother plants must be re-
moved before becoming ripe to prevent pollina-
tion. The new property is observed in the yield,
which is higher than of the separate parents. This
effect is high in the first year of growing but
decreases if the seed from the crop is used in
subsequent years, until yield becomes equal to
that of the parents. Therefore, it is necessary to
synthesize new hybrid seed each year. This tech-
nique is costly; the seed is more expensive than
the conventionally bred seed, but promises 20 %
higher yield, which more than covers the cost of
seed. This technique has been used for decades
to create many maize hybrids with a variety of
beneficial agricultural and processing properties
and has made maize production possible in re-
gions where maize has not been grown due to
adverse climatic conditions (length of daylight
hours, temperature, and length of vegetation pe-
riod). This technique applied to maize is fairly
simple because the male and female flowers on
a maize plant are situated far apart from each
other and removing male flowers from female
plants is easy. Producing wheat and rye hybrids
is more difficult, because each flower contains
anthers (male part with pollen sacs) and stigma
(female part with the ovary); to ensure and to
control the desired pollination, the anthers of the
mother plants must be removed. This procedure
is not possible to produce saleable seed, so plants
with sterile pollen were found for mother plants.
The father plant has to contribute a restorer gene,
which should restore fertile pollination; other-
wise, the hybrid plants in the field would not be
fructified or produce a decent yield. Moreover
retarded flowering opens the door to ergot infec-
tion. Wheat and rye hybrid cultivar production is
a well understood technique, providing seed that
not only increases yield, but also gives desired
properties in processing.
In order to force further advances in breeding,
the techniques of artificially production of mu-
tants by X-ray or other irradiation has been ap-
plied, disturbing the chromosome splitting dur-
ing nuclear division. Such techniques are still
used to increase the set of rye chromosomes to
a higher number that matches wheat chromo-
somes, necessary in breeding new triticale culti-
vars (see Section 7.3). Molecular biologists have
contributed much to breeding success using mo-
lecular marker technique. Molecular markers are
linked to the gene of interest, and thus make pos-
sible the recognition of a specific gene (estab-
lishing a property) in early generations [2].
A very useful tool for accelerating results is
a rather new technique that allows reproducing
a plant from a single generative cell (e.g., pollen
kernel) by growing it on a substratum containing
everything necessary for the growth of a cell to
a new organism. This cloning, a specific kind
of vegetative propagation of precious breeding
material from conventionally bred or genetically
modified plants, saves time and production costs
in comparison to conventional breeding in the
field.
Very recently, a new method of producing
transgenic plants was introduced as a promising
step in breeding pest-resistant plants. Molecular
biologists succeeded in transferring genes from
noncereal plants (e.g., grapevine, Vitis vinifera)
and fungi (e.g., Aspergillus giganteus) into the
ovary cells of cereal plants [3]. The resulting
plants were resistant to pests (e.g., milstem)
and insects (e.g., maize borer) by producing
chitinase, an enzyme that degrades chitin, the
main component of the insect exoskeleton. With
this technology the use of chemical pesticides
can be markedly decreased, which lowers the
production cost and grain contamination. Cur-
rently more than 100 genetically modified plants
(maize, soybean, rapeseed, potato, tomato, rice)
and about 40 transgenic plants (among them soy-
bean, barley, maize) are registered and present
on the seed market [4]. Growing and using such
cultivars is controlled by strict security regula-
tions, and their presence in food must be labeled
[5].
In spite of the benefits in agricultural and pro-
cessing terms, producing hybrids and transgenic
plants is still questioned. Although it is clear
that the grain and seeds of genetically modi-
fied plants present no threat to consumers [4,
6, 7], apprehension is present that these tech-
niques might produce something not control-

lable in the future, something that can harm
consumers. The idea of protecting consumers
from genetically modified and transgenic plants
and from conventionally (nonorganic) produced
food and feed was initiated and is supported by
the green movement worldwide. Moreover, the
ethical and political background that forms con-
sumer opinions differs from country to country
[7]. Transgenic cultivars in general are protected
from free production and selling by patent law.
These new promising techniques are expensive
and affordable only by research institutions such
as universities and by wealthy enterprises, which
in return expect to earn money to cover the ex-
penses of developing the cultivars and to bring
profit to the owner. The techniques are, regard-
less of the vehement and boisterous discussion,
promising, providing progress in breeding for
better agrotechnical and processing qualities of
cereals [7].
As a result of breeding, a new cultivar can be
approved and released. The new cultivar must
meet the needs of agriculture and quality in pro-
cessing, and must be clearly characterized and
recognizable from other cultivars. Preferences
for a cultivar rely on genetically linked proper-
ties, which can also be influenced by the envi-
ronment to a certain extent. The yield and the
quality of grains is an interaction of genetic po-
tential which can be increased or decreased by
environmental conditions, including the techni-
cal measures applied by farmers.
2.2. Cultivation
Cereals are grown to obtain grain to use for
food and feed. High quality and quantity of the
grain are vital. Quality is defined by the differ-
ent end uses but the quantity is defined only by
dt/ha (i.e., 100 kg/ha) yields. Yield is affected
by cultivar and tillage (fertilizing), which is in
the hands of farmers, and of soil condition and
climate, which are not. Cereals can be grown ei-
ther as winter or spring forms or exclusively as
spring forms. Winter forms have the advantage
of growing through the spring, a longer vegeta-
tion period, and thus a higher yield than spring
forms; however, winter forms need a high level
of winter hardiness. In development and growth,
cereal plants must pass through several phe-
nological phases in the vegetative period from
Cereals 5
sprouting until ripeness. Among these phases
three are crucial for both yield and grain quality.
Early in tillering, the number of ears is fixed,
and with this, the first factor determining yield.
Stem elongation is the phase in which the plant
passes from the vegetative into the generative
stage. These phases are induced by the cold in
the winter months and initiated by longer light
periods in the spring. The number of spikelets
in the ear is an additional basis for yield, and
nitrogen is the limiting factor for the number
of spikelets and flowers. Finally, in the phase
of ear emergence and flowering, starch and pro-
teins, and other minor constituents are stored in
the growing kernel. Storage protein, built from
nitrogen which is taken up through the roots,
benefits quality, both technologically in bread-
making and nutritionally in food and feed. Thus
farmers provide the cereal plants with nutrients,
especially with nitrogen to ensure the best re-
sults in yield and in quality [8]. The quantities
of applied nutrients can be considerable. Potas-
sium and phosphorus are applied at planting with
nitrogen; they influence the stability and fertil-
ity of the cereal plants. Additional nitrogen may
be as high as 100 or even 150 kg per hectare
pure N (500 to 750 kg/ha of N-fertilizer), par-
ticularly during the flowering, to obtain the ex-
pected yield. More nitrogen assists in the syn-
thesis of protein, sufficient for processing, food,
and feed quality.
The growing plant is exposed to quite a
number of pests attacking the stem, leafs, and
ears. The stem is especially vulnerable to pests
attacking stability while pests that diminish
the active area of leaves for photosynthesis
reduce yield and quality of grain. The main
pests are take-all fungi of cereals (Ophiobolus,
Cercosporela), black and stem rust (Puccinia),
net bloth (Ryncosporium; Septoria), powdery
mildew (Erysiphe) smut and bunt (Tiletia, Usti-
lago) and some others. Ergot does not affect only
rye, but also other cereals and weeds, and cre-
ates a secondary source of infection. Recently,
an increase in head blight (Fusarium culmorum)
fungus has been observed, which produces my-
cotoxins responsible for causing cancer. Further
serious pests in maize include the corn borer
(Pyrausta nubilalis), the wheat blossom midge
(Contarinia tritici, Sitodiplosis mosellana), and
the straw fly (Chlorops pumilionis) [9]. Protect-
ing plants in the fields and stored grains in bins
6 Cereals
Table 2. Grain yield in dt/ha (average of 1999 – 2001 [1])

Region Wheat Rice Maize Barley Rye Oats Millet Sorghum Total cereals

Africa 18.75 22.19 16.72 7.07 5.43 11.19 6.65 8.74 12.50
North and 26.85 58.72 70.08 29.89 19.57 23.59 16.09 35.03 47.24
Central
America
South 23.12 37.13 32.66 18.30 13.78 15.36 15.69 31.77 30.04
America
Asia 26.11 39.66 36.87 15.82 14.29 16.07 8.91 10.09 31.52
Europe 33.98 54.92 54.03 29.20 25.51 20.03 9.02 37.32 33.49
EU (of 25) 46.64 59.60 78.45 38.39 28.35 32.58 15.41 39.61 40.47
EU (of 15) 51.73 64.25 87.08 43.28 35.01 36.14 - 35.32 50.40
Oceania 19.21 86.75 58.61 20.95 6.36 18.14 13.95 30.66 14.46
World 27.43 39.04 43.63 24.90 21.62 20.06 7.68 13.97 30.95
average

is therefore indispensable. The protection may
require direct application of effective chemi-
cal agents or by avoiding conditions conducive
to development and spread of pests (bacteria,
fungi, or insects), and for lodging or prehar-
vest sprouting. The choice of cultivars, some of
which are resistant to these menaces may help
ensure a safe grain crop.
Generally, cereal grains are grown using con-
ventional methods which include choosing pro-
lific cultivars, providing the best growing and
prevention conditions, applying chemical fertil-
izers to replace the nutrients used by the previ-
ous crops, applying pesticides when necessary,
avoiding the risks of delayed cropping and car-
ing for the harvested grain by drying, cleaning,
and controlling conditions during storage. Fer-
tilizing techniques have been studied for years
and are well understood [8]. Too much fertilizer
harms the plants and increases production costs.
However, this conventional growing of cereals
is charged with producing a “contaminated and
unhealthy” food by organic producers. Produc-
tion costs and material input are relatively high
and give low prices on cereal market. Thus, high
production ensures a farmer’s living. Because
of high production costs, farmers strive to ap-
ply the lowest necessary treatments. Moreover
the amount of pesticide in and on the grain can
be reduced by technological measures such as
cleaning, peeling, and dehulling. Cereals are still
a healthy reliable food.
Organic farmers in alternative agriculture
grow the old cultivars, applying only manure
as fertilizer once before sowing, which provides
nutrients at the stages needed, without additional
applications. In this type of agriculture, chemi-
cals are avoided. Herbal extracts are used as nat-
ural pesticides and repellents to protect plants.
The input is low, but so are the yields. Thus,
the prices for organic products are high. Protein
content of organically produced cereals is low,
and in many cases, the technological quality is
also poor. In organic agriculture, several organi-
zation control standards to ensure the quality of
the product. However, pollution cannot be elim-
inated. Moreover, in many cases the cropped
grain is contaminated not by chemicals, but by
mycotoxins resulting from infection with bacte-
rial or fungal microorganisms.
Such organically produced cereals are on the
market but at minimal levels. Many consumers
cannot buy them or do not believe in the advan-
tages of organic over conventionally grown cere-
als. In highly developed countries organic agri-
culture is a philosophy, a strategy to place food
with a high ideological value on the market. In
regions where agriculture is not developed due
to poor soils and lack of water or where the en-
vironment does not favor production, yields are
low and food remains scarce.
Cereal yield worldwide depends on genus
and on the regions of cultivation. Generally,
maize (hybrid cultivars) and rice (up to three
crops a year) give the highest yield, followed
by wheat (see Table 2) [1]. Moderate climate,
such as in parts of Europe, allows higher yields,
whereby the dry regions of Africa allow only low
yields. The interaction of favorable climate and
intensive agriculture can be seen in the figures

from the EU (15 states). Optimal fertilizing at the
crucial stages in plant development make yield
as high as 100 dt/ha (10 000 kg/ha) possible with
wheat and rye. Such extremely high yield is very
close to the natural limits of the genus and can-
not be increased much more. European countries
such as Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and the
UK have the highest yield (> 70 dt/ha) while Es-
tonia and Portugal have the lowest (> 20 dt/ha).
In comparing the productivity of former EU (of
15 states) and the present EU (of 25 states), it
is apparent that applying modern intensive agri-
culture will help increase cereal production in
virtually all European states making them inde-
pendent of imports of agricultural products.
2.3. Handling
After being cropped, grains must be dried to a
safe level of water content, not higher than 14 –
15 %, at which microbiological activity and the
activity of enzymes inside the grain is reduced to
a minimum. The drying temperature should not
be higher than 45 ◦ C in grain to prevent denat-
uration of amino acids in proteins and the gela-
tinization of starch. The dryer should remove
no more than 4 % moisture at one pass through
the dryer. Sudden and harsh drying changes the
structure of the grain. This increases breakage,
which is detrimental to processing rice, break-
fast cereals, and in wet-milling of maize for
starch. Breakage is also detrimental for brew-
ing and in distilling alcohol, as well as in bak-
ing bread and other baked goods. The heating
regime should not harm the viability of grains;
viability is one way to test the grain for heat
damage. Among the many dryers, direct heating
should be avoided because they may contami-
nate the grain with carcinogenic organic com-
pounds such as benzopyrene.
Cleaning is an important procedure before
grain is stored, transported, and particularly pro-
cessed. Intensive cleaning and treating of the
grain surface is actually a first step in cereal
processing. The aim is to remove “dockage”,
“Besatz” (see Sections 4.3 and 4.4) and all im-
purities, such as chaff and straw, stones and
clods of soil, but also weed seed, and if neces-
sary and possible, the unsound grain. Therefore,
sieves, aspiration (air stream), paddy machines,
disk separators, and differently calibrated trieurs
Cereals 7
are used to sort grain by differences in specific
weight, shape and form of sound grain and im-
purities. Screening for color using photometric
devices is used to sort out ergot-infected as well
as other infected grains. Transporting vehicles
and bins are often sources of other contaminants
that contribute to microbiological deterioration.
Intensive cleaning is the basis of safe storage and
processing and must be given scrupulous atten-
tion.
The storage of grain has a long tradition
making human culture and civilization possi-
ble. Stored grain should not suffer a diminu-
tion in grade and value, i.e., the quality of the
harvested grain must be preserved. The loss of
quality is caused by both abiotic and biotic fac-
tors. Having a relatively low content of water,
grain is easy to store, and the biochemical pro-
cesses that take place in stored grain are well
understood. Temperature should be controlled
constantly. In some regions under poor stor-
age conditions caused by biotic factors such as
microorganisms (e.g. bacterial and fungal con-
tamination), infestation by insects, rodents and
birds can lead to total postharvest losses. The
respiration and gradual deterioration of viabil-
ity, nutritive, and processing quality may cause
somewhat lesser, but still significant losses oc-
cur even under good professional storage con-
ditions. The deterioration of processing quality
of stored grain is obvious for all grains regard-
less of end-use. Therefore, preservation of the
quality of stored grains and preventing of qual-
ity losses is critical in the fight against the loss
of precious food resources.
Moisture, temperature and aeration are the
factors controlling the respiration of stored
grains. Only a moisture level of about 14 % wa-
ter content allows safe storage over a long pe-
riod without deterioration [9]. However, not only
moisture, but also relative atmospheric humid-
ity is crucial for safe storage. Water binding
capacity and hygroscopicity of specific grains
are different. Critical grain moisture at which
the grain is in equilibrium with the relative at-
mospheric humidity of about 75 % differs bet-
ween the grains. Fungal spores will germinate
at greater than 75 % relative atmospheric hu-
midity leading to the rapid spread of deterio-
ration of grain. A relative atmospheric humid-
ity less than 65 % is safe for long-term storage.
Controlling temperature, moisture, and humid-
8 Cereals
ity in grain is important in preserving quality.
For dangerous changes in storage conditions,
remedies such as aeration and cooling may be
performed promptly. The relative atmospheric
humidity can be measured and expressed easily
as the ERH (equilibrium relative humidity) and
Aw -value (water activity).
Increased respiration leads to increase of tem-
perature and the release of free water, which
again intensifies respiration. The microorgan-
isms propagate in such conditions with the result
of increased metabolic activity of grains and of
microorganisms, deterioration results in loss of
viability, changes in color, odor and taste, and
formation of mycotoxins. The main microor-
ganisms attacking grain are fungi belonging
to genera Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria,
Cladosporium, Helminthosporium, and Fusar-
ium, although the last named is more a field
fungus, however, its activity continues in stor-
age. Among the insects brought in with cere-
als and their products only a few cause seri-
ous damage. Insect pests include beetles such
as Sithophilus, Tribolium, Trogoderma, Tene-
broides, moths like Sitotroga, Plodia, Anagasta,
and mites, i.e., Acarus and Tyrophagus. They do
not harm the grain directly by destroying the en-
dosperm or denaturing the grains, but may cause
allergic reactions in consumers. Some of the in-
sects spend their entire development from the
egg into adults inside a grain and are therefore
invisible to the casual observer.
Pests are either primary pests, infesting sound
grain, or secondary pests, which can attack only
broken or damaged grains. Pest control begins
with a preventive disinfection of empty storage
containers and storing grain in pest-free condi-
tions [10]. Bulk grain can also be treated with
chemical pesticides and insecticides of inorganic
or organic origin as fumigants (e.g., phosphine),
which develop toxic gases under moist condi-
tions. Hermetically closed containers are ad-
vantageous. Chemical insecticides may be haz-
ardous to the personnel and may leave residue in
grains after treatment if applied inappropriately.
Physical methods of pest control include
heating to more than 40◦ C or cooling below 0◦ C.
In both cases the immature forms and to some
extent the eggs of the pests will be killed. In-
fected grain can be successfully treated by ioniz-
ing radiation, in case of which even the immature
insects and eggs will be destroyed. Light traps
also help to control pests. Pheromone traps and
food attractants are biological ways to monitor,
identify, and protect grain from pests.
The grain can be stored in flat warehouses or
in concrete or steel bins. The flat warehouses
are less expensive to build, but vertical bins
hold more, allow simple mechanical loading and
unloading, and provide better control and pre-
vention of pests. Storage under controlled at-
mosphere has proved to be best for long-term
preservation of quality in grains.
3. Nutritional and Technological
Properties
3.1. Structure of Cereal Grains
Cereals belong to the grass family known as
the Gramineae. Cereals produce a one-seeded
fruit called a caryopse or, commonly, kernel or
grain. The dry fruit consists of seed and peri-
carp (fruit coat), and the seed is composed of
three parts: seed coat, endosperm, and embryo
(germ). The pericarp tightly covers the seed by
attaching to the seed coat. The largest part of the
seed is the endosperm, which contains the ba-
sic human nutrition resources (carbohydrate and
protein), whereas the embryo, the smallest part
of the seed, serves as an oil source. Kernel struc-
ture is important because it affects the process of
grain harvesting, drying, handling, storage, and
milling, and as a result gives different nutritional
value.
The structure of the wheat kernel is shown
in Figure 1. The dorsal side of the wheat grain
is rounded, while the ventral side has a deep
groove or crease along the entire longitudinal
axis. At the apex or small end (stigmatic end) of
the grain is a cluster of short, fine hairs known
as brush hairs. The pericarp consists of four lay-
ers: the epidermis, hypodermis, cross cells, and
tube cells. The remaining tissues of the grain
are the inner bran (seed coat and nucellar tis-
sue), endosperm, and embryo (germ). The aleu-
rone layer consists of large rectangular, heavy-
walled, starch-free cells. Botanically, the aleu-
rone is the outer layer of the endosperm, but be-
cause it tends to remain attached to the outer
coats during wheat milling, it is shown in the
diagram as the innermost bran layer.

Figure 1. A wheat kernel (A) Longitudinal section (enlarged
ca. 12×): a) Hairs of brush; b) Endosperm; c) Cell filled
with starch granules in protein matrix; d) Cellulose walls
of cells; e) Aleurone cell layer (part of endosperm but sep-
arated with bran); f) Nucellar tissue; g) Seed coat (testa);
h) Tube cells; i) Cross cells; j) Hypodermis; k) Epidermis;
l) Scutellum; m) Sheath of shoot; n) Rudimentary shoot;
o) Rudimentary primary root; p) Root sheath; q) Root cap
(B) Cross section: a) Crease; b) Endosperm; c) Pigment
strand; d) Bran; e) Germ
The embryo consists of the plumule and
radicule, which are connected by the mesocotyl.
The scutellum serves as an organ for food stor-
age. The outer layer of the scutellum, the ep-
ithelium, may function as either a secretory or
an absorption organ. In a well-filled wheat ker-
nel, the germ comprises 2 – 3 % of the kernel,
the bran 13 – 17 %, and the endosperm the re-
mainder. The inner bran layers (the aleurone) are
high in protein, whereas the outer bran (pericarp,
seed coats, and nucellus) is high in cellulose,
hemicelluloses, and minerals. Biologically, the
outer bran functions as a protective coating and
remains practically intact when the seed germi-
nates. The germ is high in proteins, lipids, sug-
Cereals 9
ars, and minerals; the endosperm consists largely
of starch granules embedded in a protein matrix.
Grains of rice, barley, oats, rye, and triticale are
similar in structure to wheat.
Hardness of grain, or kernel texture, is an im-
portant factor that affects milling characteristics
such as yield, ash content, flour particle size dis-
tribution, and finally properties of end-use prod-
ucts [11].
3.2. Composition of Cereals-Primary
Constituents
3.2.1. Starch (→ Starch)
Starch is a major source of energy for both hu-
man and animals and is produced by plant pho-
tosynthesis. Starch has been recognized as a
mixture of the essentially linear polymer amy-
lose (M r 250 000 – 1 900 000) and the highly
branched amylopectin (M r 106 −108 ). Amy-
lose is made up of links (predominantly α-1,4-
glycosidic linkage) of more than 2000 individ-
ual glucose units, whereas amylopectin in ad-
dition has several hundreds of branches linked
by α-1,6-glycosidic linkage. The composition
of amylose and amylopectin is affected mainly
by genotype. Low-amylose (called waxy) and
high-amylose varieties are found in diploid ce-
reals such as maize, barley, rice, and sorghum.
There are some wheat varieties (hexaploid) con-
taining waxy starch.
Starch is deposited in the form of granules
that range between 1 and 100 µm and have vary-
ing shapes depending on the botanical source.
Particle size distribution is also different among
cereals. Of all cereal and noncereal starches,
wheat, rye, barley, and triticale are the only cere-
als having a bimodal starch granule size distribu-
tion, with large A type and small B type granules.
Some researchers have reported a trimodal dis-
tribution in wheat starch that has C type or very
small starch granules. Among the two types of
wheat starch granules, the large A-granules have
a diameter of 10 – 35 µm and are formed first in
the developing endosperm, whereas the small B-
granules have a diameter of 1 – 10 µm and are
formed late in kernel development. In addition,
the proportion of A and B granules deposited
in an endosperm varies by genotype and envi-
ronment. Generally, large A granules comprise
10 Cereals
around 70 % of total starch weight with less than
10 % of total number of starch granules in the
endosperm and vice versa.
The length of the starch chain is responsible
for the physical properties of starch such as wa-
ter binding capacity, pasting and gelatinization,
and degradability by enzymes present in the ker-
nel or imported by microorganisms.
3.2.2. Proteins
On the basis of solubility, the original sequen-
tial procedure for separation, cereal proteins are
divided into four groups: albumins, soluble in
water; globulins, soluble in diluted salt solu-
tion; prolamin, soluble in aqueous ethanol; and
glutelins, soluble or dispersible in diluted acid
or alkali [13]. The proportion of each solubility
fraction is different among cereal grains. A re-
ciprocal relation between the prolamin contents
and the biological value of cereal proteins was
estimated. This is because the cereal prolamin
fraction generally has a poor amino acid balance
(low level of the essential amino acids lysine and
threonine). Rice and oats, with a low prolamin
content have a high protein utilization by rats,
whereas corn and sorghum, with a high prolamin
content provides only a low protein uptake [14].
Barley and wheat take an intermediate position.
Amino acid compositions of cereals are shown
in Table 3.
More simply albumins and globulins (and
some enzymes) are referred to as soluble pro-
teins, and gliadins and glutenins are insol-
uble gluten proteins. Also, wheat flour pro-
teins often have been classified into mainly
two size groups, either polymeric proteins or
monomeric proteins. This size-based classifica-
tion is now more extensively used for interpret-
ing the relation of functional properties to com-
position. Polymeric proteins include glutenins
and high-molecular-weight (HMW) albumins
and globulins, whereas monomeric proteins are
gliadins and low-molecular-weight (LMW) al-
bumins and globulins.
Protein is not only a nutritional source but
also has functional properties in the end prod-
ucts. Among the cereal proteins, wheat protein
is unique because it gives viscoelastic properties
to mixed dough and finally gives distinct charac-
teristics to various end products (→ Bread and
Other Baked Products, Chap. 5.1.2). Barley and
rye have similar physical dough properties but
to a lesser extent. The major parts of wheat
flour to contribute to the rheological properties
of doughs are the gluten proteins. All gluten pro-
teins have a relatively similar amino acid com-
position, but with a broad and continuous mo-
lecular weight distribution from about 30 000 to
20 × 106 . Gluten proteins are usually separated
into two groups, gliadins and glutenins, based
on their different solubility properties.
Gliadins are a highly heterogeneous mix-
ture of proteins that are soluble in 70 % etha-
nol. Gliadins contain mainly single polypeptide
chains (monomers) that are stabilized by hydro-
gen bonding and hydrophobic interactions, and
intramolecular disulfide bonds [15] with molec-
ular masses of 30 000 – 70 000.
Glutenin proteins account for 40 – 50 % of
the total protein present in wheat flour. Glutenins
are insoluble in a salt solution or neutral 70 %
ethanol, but soluble in diluted acid or alkali.
Molecular masses of glutenin were reported
ranging from 100 000 to 20 × 106 .
Even though there are somewhat controver-
sial reports on the role of gliadins in bread-
making, it is generally accepted that both frac-
tions seemed to be essential for dough plasticity
(gliadins) and for dough strength and elasticity
(glutenins) necessary for good dough handling,
fermenting, and bread properties.
3.2.3. Pentosans
Nonstarch polysaccharides are the main con-
stituents of cell wall material of plants. These
polysaccharides are not digestible by humans
and are referred to as dietary fiber. Non-
starch polysaccharides can be divided into three
groups: cellulose, β-glucans, and pentosans.
Pentosans, or alternatively hemicelluloses, are
made up of pentoses (monosaccharides with
five carbon atoms), mostly d-xylose and l-
arabinose. Wheat kernels contain about 7 % pen-
tosans whereas wheat flour has 1.5 – 2.5 % pen-
tosans, of which 20 – 30 % is water soluble.
The pentosan content of rye (9 % or higher)
and thus of rye flours is higher than that of
wheat. Pentosans affect the rheological prop-
erties of dough because of their high molec-
ular mass and gel-forming ability. Pentosans
 Cereals 11
Table 3. Amino acid composition of 100 g of edible portion

Amino acid Rice, brown Wheat, Corn, yellow Sorghum Millet, raw Barley Oats Rye Buck-wheat
HRW*

Tryptophan 0.096 0.160 0.067 0.124 0.119 0.208 0.234 0.154 0.192
Threonine 0.275 0.365 0.354 0.346 0.353 0.424 0.575 0.532 0.506
Isoleucine 0.318 0.458 0.337 0.433 0.465 0.456 0.694 0.549 0.498
Leucine 0.620 0.854 1.155 1.491 1.400 0.848 1.284 0.980 0.832
Lysine 0.286 0.335 0.265 0.229 0.212 0.465 0.701 0.605 0.672
Methionine 0.169 0.201 0.197 0.169 0.221 0.240 0.312 0.248 0.172
Cystine 0.091 0.322 0.170 0.127 0.212 0.276 0.408 0.329 0.229
Phenylalanine0.387 0.592 0.463 0.546 0.580 0.700 0.895 0.674 0.520
Tyrosine 0.281 0.387 0.383 0.321 0.340 0.358 0.573 0.339 0.241
Valine 0.440 0.556 0.477 0.561 0.578 0.612 0.937 0.747 0.678
Arginine 0.569 0.595 0.470 0.355 0.382 0.625 1.192 0.813 0.982
Histidine 0.190 0.285 0.287 0.246 0.236 0.281 0.405 0.367 0.309
Alanine 0.437 0.450 0.705 1.033 0.986 0.486 0.881 0.711 0.748
Aspartic acid 0.702 0.640 0.655 0.742 0.726 0.779 1.448 1.177 1.133
Glutamic acid1.528 3.998 1.768 2.439 2.396 3.261 3.712 3.661 2.046
Glycine 0.369 0.528 0.386 0.346 0.287 0.452 0.841 0.701 1.031
Proline 0.352 1.289 0.822 0.852 0.877 1.484 0.934 1.491 0.507
Serine 0.338 0.586 0.447 0.462 0.644 0.527 0.750 0.681 0.685
Total protein, 7.50 12.61 9.42 11.30 11.02 12.48 16.89 14.76 13.25
%

* Hard red winter.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2004. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference,
Release 17, Nutrient Data Laboratory.

have a high water-holding capacity because of
their highly branched structure. The hydroxyl
groups of pentosans interact with water and ab-
sorb about ten times their weight. Flour recon-
stituted with gluten, water solubles, and tailings
starch, which has a higher content of water insol-
uble pentosans, shows drastic differences in wa-
ter absorption, mixing behavior, and final baked
product texture compared with flours reconsti-
tuted with prime starch. The addition of water-
insoluble pentosans during dough mixing in-
creases water absorption more than added water-
soluble pentosans. Pentosans also have gelling
capacity. Highly viscous solutions can be ob-
tained when water-soluble pentosans dissolved
in water (1 %) are treated with oxidizing agents.
3.2.4. Lipids
Lipids are relatively minor constituents in cereal
grains. Lipid content and composition depend
largely on extraction and purification procedures
(extractant, extraction time and temperature, ap-
paratus, the solvent to solute, purifying methods,
etc.) and to a lesser extent on the condition of
samples (particle size, moisture content, varietal
differences, growing conditions, etc.). More-
over, lipid contents are significantly different de-
pending on the anatomical parts of cereal. Germs
are the richest source of lipids among all cereal
grain fractions, even though they are a relatively
small part of grain kernels. In corn kernels, 73 –
85 % of lipids are distributed in the germ frac-
tions, whereas in rye, triticale, and wheat kernel
34 – 42 % of the lipids are in the germ fraction.
By simple definition, lipids are materials solu-
ble in organic solvents, but they are classified
into many subcategories depending on the fol-
lowing: (1) location of lipids (nonstarch lipids,
starch surface lipid, and starch lipids; (2) extrac-
tion and solubility (free lipids, bound lipid, to-
tal nonstarch lipids, and hydrolyzate lipids; and
(3) biochemical structure (nonpolar or neutral
lipids: triglyceride, diglyceride, monoglyceride,
free fatty acid, and sterol esters, and polar lipids:
glycolipids and phospholipids).
Wheat flour has a total lipid content of 2.5
– 3.0 % flour weight. There are two main frac-
tions: about one-third of total lipids are starch
lipids present inside the starch granules with
mostly lyso-phospholipids; two-thirds are non-
starch lipids consisting of free lipids (0.8 – 1.0 %
flour weight), and bound lipids (0.6 – 1.0 %).
The free lipids are easily extractable from de-
fatted flour with nonpolar solvents such as pe-
12 Cereals
troleum ether or hexane, and bound lipids are
extractable with polar solvents such as an aque-
ous mixture of alcohol at ambient temperature.
The starch lipids are only extractable with polar
solvent at an elevated temperature.
Two-thirds of free lipids are nonpolar lipids.
The remaining free lipids are polar lipids of
which two-thirds are glycolipids and the remain-
ing one-third is phospholipids. Two-thirds of
bound lipids are polar lipids, which consist of
45 – 50 % glycolipids and 50 – 55 % phospho-
lipids, while one-third is nonpolar lipids [16].
Wheat flour free lipids, a minor compo-
nent, have a significant effect on breadmaking
[17]. When reconstituting defatted flours with
extracted lipids to their original levels, polar
lipids fractions of free lipids completely restored
loaf volume and crumb grain but not nonpolar
lipids [18]. Among polar lipids fractions, gly-
colipids improved loaf volume better than phos-
pholipids, and among glycolipids, digalactosyl
diglycerides was the best [16]. Polar lipids in
flour have benefits for dough handling and bak-
ing [19, 20]. Significant effects of free lipids on
breadmaking parameters among wheat varieties
were shown by statistical analyses [21]. A signif-
icant correlation of loaf volume with polar lipids
and lipid carbohydrate contents, and the nonpo-
lar lipids/polar lipids ratios of free lipids from
hard red winter wheats and flours was reported.
3.2.5. Secondary Constituents
3.2.5.1. Cellulose (→ Cellulose)
Cellulose is the main component of plant cell
walls and the basic building block for foods,
textiles, and paper. It constitutes 20 – 50 % in
dry matter of vegetables and cereals. Cellu-
lose is a straight-chain polysaccharide linked
by β-d-1,4-glucosidic bond. The length of the
chain varies greatly from a few hundred glucose
units in wood pulp to more than 6000 for cot-
ton. The hard stable crystalline regions of the
chain give the plant its structural stability and
strength, whereas noncrystalline (amorphous)
regions, which can readily absorb water, make
the plant flexible and less brittle. Cellulose is
the most abundant form of biomass because it
is found in large amounts in nearly all plants.
However, it is not digestible by humans because
they lack the enzymes necessary to cleave the
bonds between the sugars in cellulose. Because
of these properties, crystallite cellulose is used
in foods as dietary fiber. Also, some cellulose
derivatives such as sodium carboxymethyl cel-
lulose (CMC), which is an anionic, linear, and
water-soluble polymer, are added to some foods
to control the rheological properties, foam sta-
bilization, ice crystal formation and growth, and
water-binding capacity.
3.2.5.2. β-Glucan
Most cereals have β-glucans in the cell wall.
Barley and oats contain higher amount (3 – 7 %)
of β-glucans followed by rye (2 %), wheat (1 %),
and rice (< 1 %). The structure is, like that of
other polysaccharides, a linear unbranched poly-
mer of β-(1,3), (1,4)-d-glucopyranose units. β-
Glucans form cylindrical molecules containing
up to 250 000 glucose residues and have sev-
eral distinct properties because of their unique
molecular structure. High-molecular-weight β-
glucans are viscous because of their constant
cooperative associations, whereas low-molecu-
lar-weight β-glucans can form soft gels because
chains can easily be rearranged to maximum
linkages. The viscosity of a 1 % solution of bar-
ley β-glucan is 20 – 30 times higher than that
of water at 20 ◦ C, providing texturizing effects
like fat substitutes. Health benefits have been re-
ported; β-glucans, as a dietary fiber, contribute
to reducing the glycemic response and choles-
terol level in hypercholesterolemic individuals
[22].
3.2.5.3. Lignins (→ Lignin)
Lignin is a constituent of plant cell walls and
the most abundant biosource next to cellulose.
Lignin is formed by the irreversible removal
of water from sugars to create aromatic struc-
tures through the phenylpropanoid pathway. The
large lignin molecules are three-dimensional
and highly cross-linked networks built by p-hy-
droxyphenyl, guaiacyl, and syringyl units [23].
Sometimes lignin is present as a brown pow-
der, but more often it exists as a gummy mix-
ture of lignins with a wide range of molecular
masses. Lignin is naturally resistant to attack by

most microorganisms and to chemical degrada-
tion as well. The strength of wood is a result of
lignin which makes up to one-third of the mass of
dry wood. Studies have shown that lignin pro-
vides health benefits, for example, by binding
bile acids and cholesterol, inhibiting colonic car-
cinogenesis, and enhancing absorption of vita-
min A.
3.2.5.4. Lignans
In the late 1990s the importance of some specific
secondary plant substances for human health
was discovered and discussed in a number of
publications [22, 24 – 28]. These substances
were claimed to be effective in prevention of car-
cinomas, in lowering the cholesterol and glucose
levels in blood, in initiating the immunosystems
and thus contributing to the health of the con-
sumers. Out of about ten of these substances,
such as polyphenols, phytic acid, protease in-
hibitors and phytoestrogens are present in ce-
real grains in significant amounts. Particularly
isoflavonoids (isoflavone) and lignans (secoiso-
lariciresinol and matairesinol) proved to be very
effective in prevention and control of carcino-
mas at any stage of development of the dis-
ease. Rye contains significant amounts of lig-
nans — since the aleurone and pericarp are rich
in these substances, it is recommended to con-
sume whole grain-meal bakery items or by bran
enriched bakery items [26]. Despite the fact that
the amounts of these healthy substances in rye
kernel are not satisfactorily high enough, the
whole kernel bread is a valuable supplement to
the healthy food from vegetables having a high
content on lignans.
3.2.5.5. Vitamins
Two types of vitamins exist in cereal grains: fat-
soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K and
water-soluble vitamins such as vitamin B, in-
cluding thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and pyri-
doxine (vitamin B6 ) [29]. Generally, cereals
have low levels of fat-soluble vitamins because
the fat content in the kernel is low. Most lipids
exist in the germ; corn is an exception with
high levels of vitamin A and E. Corn and wheat
germ oils have high level of vitamin E (50 – 300
Cereals 13
mg/100 g), whereas whole wheat flour contains
a small amount (0.5 – 5 mg/100 g). Cereal prod-
ucts are good sources of vitamin B including thi-
amine, riboflavin, and niacin. Wheat flour is an
even better source of B vitamins because flours
are usually enriched with those vitamins. Wheat
bran is a good source of folate (60 – 80 mg/100
g), and barley, corn, oats, and wheat are consid-
ered moderate sources (20 – 60 mg/100 g). Ce-
reals, however, contain no vitamin C. Whole ce-
real products are recommended to be consumed
rather than milled products (no germ and bran),
because vitamins and other good nutrients are
generally concentrated in the germ and bran.
3.2.5.6. Mineral Matters and Phytate
Mineral matters comprise the inorganic com-
pounds in cereal kernels, which after “burning”
at high temperatures in an oven will be reduced
to “ashes”. This residue consists mostly of potas-
sium and phosphorus, with small amounts of
magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron, and trace el-
ements. The contents of mineral matters or ash
content vary according to cereal variety and ker-
nel size. Maize and sorghum have the lowest
(about 1.5 %), and unhulled barley, oats, and rice
the highest (2.6 – 4.7 %) ash contents [29]. The
bread cereals, wheat and rye, as well as dehulled
barley are intermediate (1.8 – 2.2 %). Small ker-
nels are richer in mineral matters than the bigger
ones filled with starch. In addition, the distri-
bution of mineral matter within a kernel is not
uniform. The lowest ash content is inside the en-
dosperm (0.4 %); ash content increases toward
the outer parts of the kernel, with the aleurone
layer having the highest content of mineral mat-
ter (8 – 10 %). The nonuniform distribution of
mineral matters in kernels means that flour ex-
traction when milling wheat and rye can be esti-
mated, and the flour types based on ash content
are established. Again, the whole kernel food
is a significant supplier of mineral matters in
human nourishment. Phosphorus as phytate is
important due to specific properties among the
mineral matters in cereal kernels.
Phytate (myoinositol hexaphosphoric acid) is
a naturally occurring component of plant fiber
comprising 1 – 3 % of all nuts, cereals, legumes,
and oil seeds. Phytate has important physiolog-
ical functions in the kernel. It has antioxidant
14 Cereals
properties during dormancy and acts as a stor-
age site of phosphorus, cations, and cell wall pre-
cursors. Nutritional functions of phytate in foods
are controversial. Phytate has six binding sites
to immobilize minerals such as calcium, magne-
sium, iron, and zinc, keeping them from being
absorbed in the human body. This arouses nutri-
tional concerns of decreasing mineral bioavail-
ability. However, it was debated that the health
benefit of dietary phytate overweighs the poten-
tial risk of absorbing fewer minerals. Phytate
could act as an antioxidant and anticancer agent
[30]. Also, phytate may have beneficial effects
on blood sugar level, like many dietary fibers
[31]. Although some animals are able to digest
and/or absorb phytate it is not known whether
humans can.
3.2.5.7. Tannins
Tannins are oligomeric compounds with mul-
tiple structure units with free phenolic groups.
They are generally soluble in water except
for some high molecular weight structures and
can bind proteins and form insoluble or sol-
uble tannin-protein complexes. The molecular
masses of tannins range from 500 to 20 000. Tan-
nins exist widely in the plant kingdom. Of cereal
grains, only sorghum and millet are a significant
source of tannins. In addition, only a small per-
centage (1 %) of sorghum varieties produced in
U.S. contain high tannin contents. Sorghum tan-
nins are found in the pigmented testa, a layer
between the outer integument and the aleurone
layer. They are involved in maintaining plant
dormancy and have allelopathic and bactericidal
properties. Tannins act to protect plants against
pathogens, herbivores, and hostile environmen-
tal conditions. When tannins are consumed, they
induce instantaneous negative responses like as-
tringency, bitterness, or unpleasant taste. Also,
tannins have several negative effects including
reducing feed intake and digestibility and toxi-
city to rumen microorganisms. As a result, ani-
mals fed with high tannins (over 6 %) in the diet
experience depression in growth and production
rate, and even death in poultry and some other
animals. Some studies, however, suggest that
low or moderate levels of tannins (less than 4 %)
in forage legumes can have beneficial effects in
ruminants, resulting in higher growth rates and
milk yield [32]. These effects vary depending
on the content and type of tannin ingested and
on the animal’s tolerance. There is some evi-
dence that low levels of tannins may be benefi-
cial to humans. Tannins in brown sorghum bran
can be beneficial to health because they have
higher antioxidant activity (2000 – 3000 µmol
TE/g, ORAC, Oxygen Radical Absorbance Ca-
pacity) even compared with plums (500 µmol
TE/g) and blueberries (800 µmol TE/g). Tan-
nins are stable to heat and form complexes with
many molecules such as carbohydrates, proteins,
polysaccharides, bacterial cell membranes, and
enzymes involved in digestion.
4. Standards in Grain Trade
Grain buyers and sellers have used various sys-
tems over the years to come to an agreement on
the price to be paid for grain on the basis of its
quality. However, the criteria of wheat quality,
for example, are as varied as its uses and have
resulted in the need for inspectors to judge wheat
quality to minimize disputes between marketers.
Many countries use grading systems in which
specifications based on both objective and sub-
jective evaluations define the grade. There are
many different standards, depending on country
and the specific type of cereal grain. Tables 4
and 5 show grain grade standards in the USA
and Europe.
4.1. Test Weight (TW)
Test weight is the first and most widely used (ex-
cept for rice) simple determination to grade the
quality of cereal grains for trading and milling.
In the United States, the unit of test weight
is pound per Winchester bushel (2150.42 in3 ),
whereas the Imperial bushel (2219.36 in3 ) is
used in Canada. Many other countries use kilo-
grams per hectoliter as unit. Test weight is af-
fected by kernel density and packing charac-
teristics. Packing characteristics are influenced
by kernel characteristics (shape, uniformity of
shape and size, moisture content, and surface
condition) and foreign materials. Environment
and genetics influence the test weight. Also, fre-
quent handling and moving increases the test

weight by polishing the bran coat. Some stud-
ies suggested that test weight might be useful to
predict flour yield.
4.2. 1000 Kernel Weight (TKW)
Kernel weight is generally expressed as grams
per 1000 kernels. Grains with bigger and denser
kernels give heavier weights so that kernel
weight is generally considered as a better gauge
of the physical condition of grains than test
weight. Kernel size used to be measured accord-
ing to average cross-sectional area showing that
kernel size is highly correlated to milling yield.
Today, kernel weight and size (diameter) are eas-
ily determined using a Single Kernel Character-
ization System (SKCS). Kernel weight is influ-
enced by both environment and heritable char-
acteristics. Also, kernel weight is significantly
affected by the rate of grain filling during matu-
ration.
4.3. Besatz
Besatz is defined by the International Associa-
tion for Cereal Science and Technology (ICC)
as all the components of a grain sample which
differ from the normal basic variety. ICC subdi-
vided Besatz into four categories: grain dockage
(broken grains, shriveled grains, other grains or
grains of contrasting varieties, sprouted grains,
insect-damaged grains, frost-damaged grains,
and grains with discolored germs); black dock-
age (toxic or nontoxic weed seeds, ergot, un-
sound grains, smutty grains, and impurities and
chaff); total Besatz (the sum of grain dockage
and black dockage); and animal impurities or
impurities of animal origin and insect fragments
[33].
4.4. Dockage
According to the official U.S. Grain Standards,
dockage is defined as all matter other than
grains that can be removed from the original
sample by use of an approved device (Carter
Dockage Tester) in accordance with procedures
prescribed in Federal Grain Inspection Service
(FGIS) instructions as well as underdeveloped,
Cereals 15
shriveled, and small pieces of wheat kernels re-
moved in properly separating the material other
than grain and that cannot be recovered by prop-
erly rescreening or recleaning. The main differ-
ence between Besatz and dockage is that Besatz
includes unsound grains.
4.5. Foreign Material
Foreign material is all matter other than grains
that remains in the sample after the removal of
dockage and shrunken and broken kernels.
4.6. Sprout Damage
Sprout damage can occur on wheat when there
is rain before harvest. Even though there is no
visible sprout damage on kernels, such kernels
usually have highly elevated α-amylase activ-
ity. Baking characteristics of flours milled from
sprout damaged wheat are poor. Wheats grown
in North America generally have fewer problems
than those grown in Europe where weather is of-
ten wet during harvest. The α-amylase activity
is conveniently determined by Hagberg – Perten
falling number and Brabender Amylograph pro-
cedures or newer method with a Newport Scien-
tific Rapid-Visco-Analyser [33, 34].
4.7. Chemical Characteristics that
Determine Wheat Quality
Moisture and protein contents are important fac-
tors in trading wheat and other grains. Even
though moisture content is no longer a deter-
minant of wheat grade in the U.S. Standards, it
should be reported on all samples for two rea-
sons. Firstly, it is directly related with money
because higher water content means less dry
matter. Secondly, excessive moisture content in
grain prompts deterioration by molds, insects,
and self-heating during storage and transporta-
tion. Other conditions also contribute the dete-
rioration of grain, but moisture content of many
grains should be less than 14 % for extended
storage at 18 ◦ C and less than 13 % at 25 ◦ C or
higher. The Australian Wheat Board Receival
Standard allows maximum moisture content of
12 %.
16 Cereals
Table 4. Official U.S. grade and grade requirement for wheat

Grades U.S. Nos.

Grading factors 1 2 3 4 5

Minimum pound limits of:

Test weight per bushel
Hard Red Spring wheat or White Chib 58.0 57.0 55.0 53.0 50.0
wheat
All other classes and subclasses 60.0 58.0 56.0 54.0 51.0
Maximum percent limits of:
Defects:
Damaged kernels
Heat (part of total) 0.2 0.2 0.5 1.0 3.0
Total 2.0 4.0 7.0 10.0 15.0
Foreign material 0.4 0.7 1.3 3.0 5.0
Shrunken and broken kernels 3.0 5.0 8.0 12.0 20.0
Total1 3.0 5.0 8.0 12.0 20.0
Wheat of other classes:2
Contrasting classes 1.0 2.0 3.0 10.0 10.0
Total3 3.0 5.0 10.0 10.0 10.0
Stones 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Maximum count limits of:
Other material:
Annual filth 1 1 1 1 1
Castor beans 1 1 1 1 1
Crotalana seeds 2 2 2 2 2
Glass 0 0 0 0 0
Stones 3 3 3 3 3
Unknown foreign substances 3 3 3 3 3
Total4 4 4 4 4 4
Insect-damaged kernels in 100 grams 31 31 31 31 31
U.S. Sample grade is Wheat that:
(a) Does not meet the requirements for U.S. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5; or
(b) Has a musty, sour, or commercially objectionable foreign odor (except smut or garlic odor) or
(c) Is heating or of distinctly low quality.
1
Includes damaged kernels (total), foreign material, shrunken and broken kernels.
2
Unclassed wheat of any grade any contain not more than 10.0 percent of wheat of other classes.
3
Includes contrasting classes.
4
Includes any combination of animal filth, castor beans, crotalaria seeds, glass, or stones, or unknown foreign substance.

Protein content is also important in wheat 5. Uses

trading. Wheat is usually blended from differ-
ent varieties and lots before trade to tailor the
buyer’s request. As a result, wheat with high
protein content is in demand for delivering high-
protein composite wheat (11 – 13 %) that is suit-
able for producing pan-bread. Protein quality is
another factor that affects the final properties of
end-use products. For wheat trading, however, it
is not listed as wheat grade determinant because
of the difficulties of determining protein quality
for specific purposes.
5.1. Human Food and Animal Feed
5.1.1. Wheat
Wheat, a major world cereal grain, is con-
sumed mainly by humans in nearly all coun-
tries around the world, irrespective of wheat-
exporting or wheat-importing. The type of food
use depends on kernel hardness (the texture of
the endosperm) which affects milling process
quality and protein content/quality, which deter-
mines suitability for various products. To a lesser
 Cereals 17
Table 5. European grain standards [35]

Durum wheat Common Rye Barley Maize Sorghum

wheat

A. Maximum moisture content 14.5 % 14.5 % 14.5 % 14.5 % 14.5 % 14.5 %

B. Maximum percentage of matter which is not 12 % 12 % 12 % 12 % 12 % 12 %
basic cereal of unimpaired quality:
1. Broken grains 6% 5% 5% 5% 10 % 10 %
2. Impurities consisting of grains (other than 5% 7% 5% 12 % 5% 5%
indicated at 3) of which:
(a) shrivelled grains – –
(b) other cereals 3%
(c) grains damaged by pests 5%
(d) grains in which the germ is discoloured – – – –
(e) grains overheated during drying 0.50 % 0.50 % 1.5 % 3% 3% 3%
3. Mottled grains and/or grains affected with 5% – – – – –
fusariosis of which:
– grains affected with fusariosis 1.5 % – – – – –
4. Sprouted grains 4% 4% 4% 6% 6% 6%
5. Miscellaneous impurities (Schwarzbesatz) of 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
which:
(a) extraneous seeds
– noxious 0.10 % 0.10 % 0.10 % 0.10 % 0.10 % 0.10 %
– other
(b) damaged grains:
– grains damaged by spontaneous heating or 0.05 % 0.05 %
too extreme heating during drying
– other
(c) extraneous matter
(d) husks
(e) ergot 0.05 % 0.05 % 0.05 % – – –
(f) decayed grains – – – –
(g) dead insects and fragments of insects
C. Maximum percentage of wholly or partially 27 % – – – – –
piebald grains
D. Maximum tannin content1 – – – – – 1%
E. Minimum specific weight (kg/hL) 78 73 70 62 – –
F. Minimum protein content1 :
– 2000/2001 marketing year 11.5 % 10 % – – – –
– 2001/2002 marketing year 11.5 % 10.3 % – – – –
– 2002/2003 onwards 11.5 % 10.5 %
G. Hagberg falling number (s) 220 220 120
H. Minimum Zeleny index (mL) – 22 – – – –

1
As % of dry matter.

extent, types of food depend on the starch, lipid,
or other minor constituent composition and con-
tent.
The average annual per capita consumption
of wheat from 1997 to 1999 was 70.8 kg
globally, ranging from 15.9 kg in Sub-Saharan
Africa and 16.3 kg in Bangladesh to 131.7 kg
in Russia and 97.6 kg in Western Europe (Table
6). The U.S. total annual food usage, exclud-
ing alcoholic beverage production, was 25.2 ×
106 t of which 97.4 % was consumed as flour
products, including white, whole wheat, and
semolina flour, with 2.6 % for cereals.
Nearly all foods derived from wheat use
milled flours or whole wheat ground meals of
“common wheat” for bread, biscuits, and other
food production, and semolina and farina milled
from durum wheat for pasta production. A small
portion of wheat grain is directly used for manu-
facturing ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, such as
flaked, puffed, or shredded wheat.
Industrial applications of wheat are in the
manufacture of malt, potable spirits, starch,
18 Cereals
Table 6. Annual per-capita consumption (kg per person) of cereal grains, regional and selected countries (1997 – 1999 average)

Area Wheat Milled rice Corn Sorghum Millet Barley Rye

North and 70.9 10.8 40.1 1.2 0 0.4 0.2

Central America
United States 86.8 8.6 13.8 1.2 0 0.5 0.3
Central 37.1 9.4 112.1 1.8 0 0.1 0
America
South America 55.5 31.8 21.8 0 0 0.5 0
Brazil 47.4 39.5 18.0 0 0 0 0
Western Europe 97.6 4.8 5.8 0 0 0.6 3.9
Russia 131.7 4.9 0.3 0 2.9 0.9 9.2
Africa 46.3 17.8 41.4 19.5 12.9 4.1 0
Sub-Saharan 15.9 17.5 38.9 24.9 16.9 1.5 0.1
Africa
Asia 69.9 86.4 13.9 2.8 3 0.9 0.1
China 82.6 91.6 19.7 1.1 0.8 0.6 0.2
India 57.3 75.8 8.8 8 9.1 1.2 0
Indonesia 16.3 151.0 34.4 0 0 0 0
Bangladesh 19.0 161.1 0.3 0 0.4 0 0
Oceania 66.9 15.2 3.4 0.6 0 0.4 0.6
World average 70.8 57.8 19.0 4.3 3.5 1.3 1.1
[36]: Source from FAO (2001).

gluten, pastes, and core binders. In the brew-
ing and distilling industries only small amounts
of wheat malt are employed. More malt is used
by the flour milling industries to increase the α-
amylase activity of the different types of flours.
A certain amount of wheat flour is utilized to
manufacture wheat starch as a byproduct of vital
gluten (its functional properties make it prefer-
able for breadmaking). Gluten supplements flour
proteins for specialty baked goods. Flour is also
a raw material for manufacturing monosodium
glutamate, which is used to flavor food. Some
low-grade flours are used to make pastes for
book-binding or paper hanging as well as to
make core-binders for preparing molds for iron
castings. Especially in Australia, starch is a
byproduct of wheat gluten manufacture. High
yields of wheat in Western Europe make pro-
ducing starch and gluten attractive because both
products can be marketed economically.
Flours from hard “common” wheats are used
for bread (leavened or unleavened) including
dinner rolls, hamburger buns, hot dog rolls,
bagels, pretzels, pizza crust, hearth breads, En-
glish muffins, croissants, sweet yeast goods,
doughnuts, various types of fermented Ara-
bic flat breads or unleavened chapatti, chemi-
cally leavened Barbari bread, and Swedish crisp
bread or Chinese steamed bread, noodles (Asian
alkaline types), bulgur, and ingredients for wide
range of foods. Flours from soft “common”
wheats are used for groups of products includ-
ing biscuits, cookies (rotary molded, wire-cut,
cutting-machine, soft, and trolley goods), crack-
ers, wafers, and pretzels; cakes of all types and
sizes from sponges and high-ratio cakes to heav-
ily fruited cakes and from cup cakes to wed-
ding cakes, including the wide range of prepared
cake mixes; pastry products, from piecrust, puff
pastries to sweet Danish pastries; waffles, pan-
cakes, and doughnuts, and refrigerated/frozen
doughs for a chemically leavened breakfast bis-
cuit; and Asian noodles (Japanese “Udon” type).
Soft wheat flour is also used as a thickener for
soups and soup mixes, in the manufacture of
crumbs for coating fish and meat products, and
also as the basis for ready-to-eat breakfast ce-
reals (see also → Bread and Other Baked Prod-
ucts).
Durum wheat is the raw material of choice
for the production of pasta products, macaroni,
spaghetti, vermicelli, and noodles that are manu-
factured primarily from semolina, durum gran-
ulars, and flour produced from the milling of
durum wheat. The 10-year (1976–1985) aver-
age world durum wheat production was 24.24
× 106 t: 28 % of world production originated
from Near East Asia, 23.4 % from North Amer-
ica, 19.2 % from Western Europe, 12.1 % from
North Africa, 1.1 % from South America, and
16.2 % from other regions. Durum wheat prod-
ucts are (a) pasta products, including pasta and

couscous, and (b) nonpasta products, including
bulgur and frekeh. The use of pasta dates back
many centuries. Although such products as pasta
were made popular by the Italians, most cer-
tainly they were a part of earlier cultures in China
and later cultures in many other countries.
Animal Feeds. In animal feeds relatively
less wheat than other coarse grains are used.
The use of wheat for animal feeds depends on
the quality of wheat, whether it is unsuitable for
making foods, or on the cultural practices of re-
gions and countries. The USA and the UK con-
sume about 6 × 106 t each for animal feed, repre-
senting only 10 % and 25 % of total consump-
tion, respectively. The UK produces approxi-
mately 15 × 106 t of wheat each year, and 25 %
is exported. About 40 % of the produced wheat
is used in animal feed rations going to chickens,
cows and pigs with the remaining 35 % con-
sumed by humans with thousands of products
and the daily production of 10 million loaves of
bread.
5.1.2. Rice
Rice is a primarily food crop, like wheat, with an
average global annual production (1999 – 2001)
of around 602 × 106 t on a rough (paddy) ba-
sis, approaching maize production and exceed-
ing wheat production (Table 1). Most rice is used
in its producing countries with relatively little in-
ternational trade (5 % of total world production).
The most important rice exporter is Thailand (>
6 × 106 t milled rice export in 2000), followed
by the USA ,with an average annual amount of
4.4 × 106 t of rough rice or 3.1 × 106 t of milled
rice, and Vietnam (> 3 × 106 t milled rice in
2000) (Table 6) [36]. Rice is a dietary staple for
more than half of the world’s population. The av-
erage annual per capita consumption of milled
rice globally was 57.8 kg per person, ranging
from 4.8 kg in Western Europe and 4.9 kg per
person in Russia to 161.1 kg in Bangladesh and
151.0 kg per person in Indonesia (Table 6). In the
USA, 97 % of domestic use is for foods and in-
dustry, and 3 % seed use, and almost no feed use.
The U.S. annual per capita consumption during
1997 – 1999 was 8.6 kg of milled rice (Table 6),
which is small compared to total cereal grain
consumption in the USA. However, the world
average per capita consumption of total cereal
Cereals 19
grains shows that milled rice constitutes 36.3 %
of grain consumption, with a range of 3.2 % in
Russia to 89.1 % of total cereal grains consumed
in Bangladesh.
Unlike other cereals, rice is consumed as a
whole grain, after the bran layers are removed.
For human consumption, rough (paddy) rice is
de-hulled and milled to remove the bran layers,
leaving the lustrous, white grain. Brown rice re-
tains the bran layers, which contain many nu-
trients. Short-grain varieties (indica types) be-
come usually sticky on cooking and are very well
preferred in many parts of northern Asia. How-
ever, most western countries prefer the drier,
flaky quality provided by the long-grain vari-
eties (japonica type). Milled rice is consumed
usually as a cooked grain, although there are
many food products made from rice, including
parboiled rice, rice crackers, rice noodles, rice
cakes and snack foods, rice flour, and fermented
drinks, i.e., sake and rice wine.
Animal Feeds. Rice is used throughout the
world as a food commodity and, with the ex-
ception of rice bran and germ, is rarely used in
animal feeding. In countries where more rice is
grown and human food uses require the entire
grain production, ruminants are fed rice straw
[36]. In the USA, the largest category for rice
use in the processed foods is the pet food in-
dustry, which used 3.13 × 105 t in 1999 – 2000,
with sales of $11.8 × 109 in 2000, a 6 % increase
from the year before [37]. Broken or brewers’
rice is most commonly used in pet food because
of the lower cost, but flour, bran, and whole long-
or medium-grain rice are also commonly used.
5.1.3. Maize (Corn)
Maize, also known as corn in the USA, and in-
digenous to the Americas, is produced world-
wide (Table 1) with the highest world aver-
age yield (43.63 dt/ha, Table 2). Maize is con-
sumed in various forms after different process-
ing methods in many different countries and cul-
tural regions (Table 6). Most maize consumed
worldwide is fresh or immature (green) whole
grain maize on the cob, popmaize (popcorn), and
maize bread. Unfermented breads like tortillas
and arepas are the most popular maize food in
Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia. In
20 Cereals
Mexico, the average annual per-capita consump-
tion of maize in the form of tortillas (nixtamal-
ized, i.e., lime-cooked) was 120 kg per person.
Porridge is another popular form of maize food
that is prepared in many ways in Central and
South America, Africa, Southwestern USA, and
Southern Europe. Maize is also used for making
alcoholic beverages in Central and South Amer-
ica and Africa.
Maize is processed by three industrial meth-
ods: wet-milling, dry-milling, and nixtamaliza-
tion. Wet-milling (Section 6.3) is mainly used
by industries to separate out the corn compo-
nents efficiently to obtain valuable coproducts
such as starch, protein, fiber, and germ. More
than 90 % of commercially available starch is
from maize, and most starch is further processed
into maize syrups by acid hydrolysis or en-
zymatic conversion (→ Glucose and Glucose-
Containing Syrups). Maize syrups (sweeteners)
are extensively used by the soft drink industry
because of their superior characteristics such as
high sweetness, ease of use, and functionality
with other ingredients. Oil mills produce maize
oil from germ, which is widely used as cook-
ing oil because it is very digestible and pro-
vides high levels of essential fatty acids, vitamin
E, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Dry-milling
produces endosperm fractions (grits, meal, and
flour), germ, and dietary fiber. Products from
dry-milling are mainly used for snacks, break-
fast cereals, and alcohol production. Nixta-
malization is the traditional Mexican method
for processing maize, produces tortilla, tortilla
chips, maize chips, and other snacks, which are
gaining popularity also in other parts of the
world. Production of fuel alcohol consumed the
most maize (1168 × 106 bushels, 46.4 %), and
high-fructose maize syrup was second (530 ×
106 bushels, 21.1 %). Starch, glucose, cereals
and other products, and beverage alcohol were
produced from 271 (10.8 %), 228 (9.1 %), 187
(7.4 %), and 130 (5.2 %) × 106 bushels of maize,
respectively.
Animal Feeds. Maize refiners produce four
major feed products: condensed fermented
maize extractives (steep liquor), gluten feed,
gluten meal, and maize germ meal. During the
wet-milling process, steep liquor comes out of
the steeps. Steep liquor contains 5 – 10 % solids
consisting of about 44 % protein and other mi-
cronutrients [38]. Steep liquor is used as nutri-
tious binder mixed with maize fiber. The mix-
ture of steep liquor and maize fiber, called gluten
feed, is processed into pellets to increase density
by 25 – 30 %, thus improving handling costs,
and fed to cattle. Dried maize gluten meal sup-
plies energy, vitamins, and minerals to poultry.
It is important for poultry feeding that maize
gluten meal should keep natural golden pigmen-
tation (xanthophyll) because it provides desir-
able yellow egg yolk color and carcass skin.
Maize germ meal is the remaining residue after
oil is extracted. Germ meal has a high content
of protein (about 24 %, dry basis), vitamins, and
minerals, so that it is often combined with gluten
feed.
5.1.4. Other Cereals
Sorghum. The major sorghum producing
centers are in Africa and Asia (54.4 % of to-
tal production), sorghum is the third major ce-
real used in the USA. Most (87 %) is used as
feed. Recently, sorghum has gained more inter-
est because of its unique agricultural and nutri-
tional characteristics [39]. Sorghum is drought-
resistant and heat-tolerant, so it can often be
grown in areas where other cereals cannot. This
may become more important as the world popu-
lation continues to rise, and water shortages oc-
cur. Recent research has discovered many new
health benefits of sorghum, due to its high an-
tioxidant levels, related to its content of polyphe-
nolic compounds and sorghum wax, containing
polyicosanols, which may be important in car-
diac health. In addition, sorghum is often recom-
mended as a safe food for celiac patients who are
intolerant to gluten (cereal protein from wheat,
barley, and rye) because it is more closely re-
lated to maize than to wheat, barley, and rye.
Sorghum might, therefore, provide a good basis
for gluten-free breads and other baked products
such as pasta, cookies, and snacks.
Barley. Most barley produced worldwide is
used for feed (75 %) and malt for alcoholic bev-
erages (20 %) as well as human food. However,
in the USA, barley is used more for human con-
sumption, seed, or industry uses (64 %) than as
feed (36 %) because the production of barley
in the USA has sharply decreased from 375 ×
106 bushel (1994) to 276 × 106 bushel (2003).
Barley is used in many different products, such
 Cereals 21
Table 7. Nutrient composition of whole grain flour of wheat, rice, and maize and of their refined products (100 g flour and normal moisture
content basis)

Cereal/ Product Wheat flour, Wheat flour, Wheat flour, Rice flour, Rice flour, Maize flour, Maize flour,
whole grain white, bread, white, bread, brown white whole grain, degermed,
unenriched enriched yellow yellow

Energy, kcal 339 361 361 363 366 361 375

Protein, g 13.7 11.98 11.98 7.23 5.95 6.93 5.59
Fat, g 1.87 1.66 1.66 2.78 1.42 3.86 1.39
Carbohydrate, g 72.57 72.53 72.53 76.48 80.13 76.85 82.75
Dietary fiber, g 12.2 2.4 2.4 4.6 2.4 13.4 1.9
Thiamin, mg 0.447 0.08 0.812 0.443 0.138 0.246 0.074
Riboflavin, mg 0.215 0.06 0.512 0.080 0.021 0.080 0.058
Niacin, mg 6.365 1.00 7.554 6.340 2.590 1.900 2.656
Pantothenic acid, mg 1.008 0.438 0.438 1.591 0.819 0.658 0.052
Vitamin B6, mg 0.341 0.037 0.037 0.763 0.436 0.370 0.097
Folate, µg 44 33 183 16 4 25 48
Calcium, mg 34 15 15 11 10 7 2
Iron, mg 3.88 0.9 4.41 1.98 0.35 2.38 0.91
Magnesium, mg 138 25 25 112 35 93 18
Phosphorus, mg 346 97 97 337 98 272 60
Potassium, mg 405 100 100 289 76 315 90
Zinc, mg 2.93 0.85 0.85 2.45 0.8 1.73 0.37

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2004. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference,
Release 17, Nutrient Data Laboratory.

as pearl barley, barley flour, flakes and grits,
malt flour supplements, sweetener, malted milk,
syrup, rice extenders, breakfast cereals, soups,
pilaf mixes, breads, cookies, crackers and snack
bars. Barley is known to have a high content of
soluble fiber (β-glucan). β-Glucan is effective in
lowering the blood cholesterol levels of chicken,
rats, swine, and humans [22]. Barley is uniquely
suited for malting as opposed to other grains.
In brewing, barley malt provides hydrolytic en-
zymes and a fermentable substrate. Because the
quality of the barley malt is critical in brewing,
malting barley is subject to very strict quality re-
quirements and traded as a specific cultivar (→
Beer, Chap. 2.1).
Oats. Most oats produced in the USA are
used as feed (69 %), the rest is as food and in
industry. As feed, oats are good for ruminants
such as dairy and beef cattle and for sheep. Oats
are also preferred feed for horses because of high
palatability, digestibility, and nutritional value.
The demand for oats for human consumption has
increased lately because of their many health
benefits. Scientific evidence suggests that oats
can flatten the postprandial blood glucose and
insulin rise, reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol, and
reduce the risk of cancer because oats are rich in
β-glucan and antioxidants (e.g., phenolic acids,
avenanthramides, flavonoids, sterols, and phytic
acid) [22]. Oats are a minor crop but have ad-
vantages nutritionally because they are usually
eaten as whole grain, providing better nutrition
than other cereals that are usually consumed af-
ter milling or refining which removes much of
the fiber, vitamins, and minerals from cereals.
Most common oats products are porridge or oat-
meal, breakfast cereals, granola bars, and cook-
ies. Industrial usages of oats are for adhesives,
paper, coating agents for tablet, and cleansers
(soap, shampoo, etc.).
5.2. Importance of Whole Cereals,
Refined Products, and Fortification for
Nutrition, Health, and Requirement
Cereals usually go through several milling pro-
cesses before they are consumed. During this
process, a significant part of the nutrients, such
as proteins, vitamins, and minerals, are removed
from the grain because many cereals tend to have
valuable nutritive constituents in the outer layers
(bran and aleurone layer) and the germ. Table 7
shows the nutrient composition of whole grain
flours and of their refined products. Unenriched
white flour contains far less dietary fiber, vita-
mins, and minerals than whole grain flour. Es-
pecially high losses occur for dietary fiber (80 %
reduction), thiamine (82 %), niacin (84 %), vita-
22 Cereals
min B6 (89 %), and magnesium (82 %). In en-
riched flour most vitamins are replaced, some
even to higher levels, but dietary fiber and most
minerals remain same as those of unenriched
flour. White rice and degermed maize flour also
have significantly lower nutritional values than
brown rice and whole grain maize flour. Much
information on the benefits of consuming whole
grain has been published, in both epidemiolog-
ical and clinical studies. Whole grain is an ex-
cellent source of high fiber, vitamins, minerals,
disease-fighting phytochemicals, and antioxi-
dants [22, 26, 29]. Many health benefits are as-
sociated with consuming whole grains: reducing
the risks of cancer, heart disease (high choles-
terol), stroke, high blood pressure, obesity, type
II diabetes, and bowel disorders. In 2005, the
U.S. Department Health and Human Services
and the Department of Agriculture revised the
“Dietary Guidelines for Americans” dramati-
cally from the previous one [40]. One key to the
newly added recommendations is whole grain.
These guidelines recommend at least three serv-
ings (1 serving: 16 g of whole grain flour = 1
ounce or one slice of whole grain bread) of
whole grains per day. However, Americans eat
less than one serving of whole grains per day, and
more than 30 % of Americans never eat whole
grains. Other countries gave the similar situa-
tion. Whole grain consumption is generally low
except in Scandinavian countries, where whole
grain products are regularly consumed. Whole
grain consumption in the UK was known as less
than one serving per day. Considering all the
benefits, increasing consumption of whole grain
products and reducing consumption of refined
flour products is highly recommended.
In 1942, the U.S. government passed the
Enrichment Act, requiring the replacement of
niacin, thiamine, iron, and riboflavin (more than
is present in whole grain) in refined white flour.
A deficiency of vitamin B (thiamine) causes
beriberi (great weakness), which makes people
suffer weakness in legs and loss of feeling in
the feet, finally they die from heart failure. Iron
deficiency, which is more common in people
whose staple food is rice, causes anaemia. More
recently, in 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Ad-
ministration mandated folic acid supplementa-
tion in white flour to reduce the risk of neural
tube birth defect. Wheat flour fortification is now
widely accepted in many countries. Other for-
tifications of cereal and cereal-based foods are
performed voluntarily by food manufacturers.
The most common nutrients used in fortifica-
tion are vitamins A, B1 , B2 , niacin (B3 ), pan-
tothenic acid (B5 ), B6 , B12 , C, E, and folic acid,
and of the minerals calcium, copper, iodine, iron,
magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc.
Generally, fortification of cereals improves the
nutritional profile of foods, resulting in health
benefits to consumers, but government and/or
manufacturers need to closely control fortifica-
tion programs to prevent exposure of consumers
to the risk of overintakes or imbalance of nutri-
ents. Moreover, cereals are not a complete food
or feed, so other foods, vegetables and proteins
from animal or dairy products, are needed to be
consumed to meet the requirement of balanced
daily diet.
6. Processing
6.1. Dry-Milling Process
6.1.1. Wheat
The primary use of wheat in food production is
flour (see Section 5.1). Some wheat is also used
in breakfast cereals. Much of the flour is sold,
not in its original form, but as blended and pre-
pared flours for restaurants, cafeterias, schools,
and all-purpose flours for private households.
Wheat and Flour Quality. In cereal tech-
nology, the term quality denotes the suitabil-
ity of the material for a specific end use. The
term flour quality has no relation to nutritional
attributes. For example, high-protein wheat flour
is a good quality for breadmaking. Low-protein
wheat flour is good for chemically leavened
products such as biscuits, cakes, and pastry. The
miller wants wheat that gives a high yield of
flour. Therefore, wheat kernels should be plump
and uniformly large for easy and simple separa-
tion of foreign material. The wheat should pro-
duce a high yield of flour with maximum and
clean separation from the bran and germ and
without excessive consumption of power. Be-
cause the endosperm is denser than the bran and
the germ, semihard wheat produces more flour.
The production of bread flours requires that the
difference in protein content between wheat and
flour be no more than 1 – 1.5 %.

Gluten is particularly important for food pro-
duction. Gluten imparts physical properties to
dough made from wheat flour that differ from
those of dough made from other cereal grains.
Gluten is responsible for gas retention, which
makes producing well-leavened baked goods
possible. Usually, bread volume increases with
an increase in gluten protein content [41].
In addition to gluten proteins, lipids are
also essential for maximum performance. Bread
baked from defatted flour or gluten-starch mix-
tures is consistently lower in volume than bread
baked from normal flour with comparable pro-
tein content.
Bread of satisfactory quality cannot be baked
without wheat starch, which is a main flour com-
ponent (→ Bread and Other Baked Products,
Chap. 5.1.1). Starches from wheat, rye, barley,
and triticale have comparable granule sizes and
gelatinization characteristics and can be used in
bread making in combination with wheat gluten.
Bread flour should have adequate α-amylase
activity for starch modification. Optimum α-
amylase levels are maintained by careful wheat
selection and by adding small amounts of malted
wheat or malted barley flour or α-amylases. To
improve the baking behavior, oxidizing agents
such as potassium bromate (in the U.S.) or ascor-
bic acid (in Europe) are used. In addition to this
flour treatment, consumers in North America
want a relatively white crumb; therefore, bleach-
ing agents are used to convert the carotenoide
pigments of the flour to colorless compounds.
Some flours are enriched with certain vitamins
or minerals, particularly in the USA.
Dry-Milling of Wheat. Milling grain as
food for humans has been traced back more
than 8000 years. Milling started with hand mills,
followed by horse-driven mills. Later, water-
and wind-driven mills were developed. Today
a sophisticated and automated milling industry
exists [42 – 45]. In producing white flour, the
objective is to separate the starchy endosperm
of the grain from the bran and the germ. Then,
the separated endosperm is pulverized. This
separation of the starchy endosperm is possible
because its physical properties differ from those
of the fibrous pericarp and oily germ. The bran is
tough because of its high fiber content whereas
the starchy endosperm is friable. The germ has
high oil content and is flaked between smooth
Cereals 23
rolls. The differences in toughness of the bran
and the friability of the starch endosperm are en-
hanced by wheat conditioning, which involves
adding water before milling and using different
tempering times. Water toughens the bran and
mellows the endosperm. Wheat flour production
involves wheat selection and blending; clean-
ing and conditioning; breaking, sieving, and
reduction; and special treatments (bleaching,
enrichment, oxidizing agents, etc.).
Selection and Blending. To produce wheat
flour of definite characteristics, wheat with dif-
ferent baking strengths must be separated and
blended. In some mills, blending to a certain
quality level is done before cleaning. In larger
milling units, this mostly occurs after cleaning.
A uniform mixture after blending must meet
stringent specifications. The uniformity of the
mixture is usually controlled by a near infrared
(NIR) technique (analytical control).
Cleaning. The cleaning process is very im-
portant in milling because poor cleaning directly
negatively influences the result [42, 44]. Wheat
contains many damaged kernels (broken grains,
shriveled grains, other cereals like rye), sprouted
grains, grains with discolored germ, insect-
damaged grains, frost-damaged grains, and heat-
damaged grains. Also, weed seeds (toxic, non-
toxic), ergot, unsound grains, smutty grains, im-
purities, and chaff must be removed [33].
Usually cleaning starts with a magnetic sep-
arator to remove any free metal pieces in the
wheat stream (Fig. 2). A second separator re-
moves Besatz fractions according to size and
specific weight. Stones are removed in a dry
stoner. Disk separators or trieur cylinders can
separate wheat by kernel shape. An intensive
surface cleaning is done by a scourer. This pro-
cess removes spores and mycotoxins-polluted
kernels from the wheat grains, as well as heavy
metals such as lead.
Conditioning. In the cleaning process, water
is added to the grain and allowed to stand for dif-
ferent times to ensure maximum toughening of
the bran with optimum mellowing of the starchy
endosperm. The tempering time depends on the
hardness of the wheat grains. Hard wheats are
tempered to 16 – 18 % moisture and soft wheats
to 14 – 16 % moisture content. After condition-
ing, metal pieces are again separated, followed
by an air classification to improve the cleaning
effect. The cleaned wheat is stored in a mill bin
24 Cereals
and weighed exactly before it is transported to
the first break in the mill.
Figure 2. Flow sheet for a conventional cleaning house
Grinding. The grinding process is the most
important step in the milling system. The first
part of grinding is carried out on corrugated rolls
(break rolls) (Fig. 3). The manner in which the
kernel is broken by two pairs of rolls that rotate
in opposite directions at different speeds affects
the subsequent sifting and purifying operations,
both in granulation (particle size distribution)
and in the amount of fine bran present in the
ground material, in the reduction and sizing sys-
tems. The grinding process is divided in four
systems [42, 44]:
– break system; separates the endosperm from
the bran and germ,
– sizing system; separates the small bran pieces
attached to the large pieces of endosperm,
– reduction system; reduces the endosperm to
flour, and
– tailing system; separates the fiber from the en-
dosperm, removed from the other three sys-
tems.
Figure 3. Flow sheet for milling process a) Tempering
bins; b) Entoleter; c) Grinding bin; d) Sifter; e) Purifier;
f) Reducing rolls; g) Reducing rolls and sifters;
h) Bleaching; i) Bulk storage; j) Germ rolls; k) Flour
treatment/enriching
The principal forces of grinding are compres-
sion, shear, friction-abrasion, and impact. Most
grinders operate on a combination of these prin-
ciples. The most common grinding machines are
roller, attrition, impact, ball, or cutter mills, bran
dusters, and pearlers. The oldest attrition mill for
grinding wheat was the stone mill applying the
forces of compression, shear, and abrasion.
The first break rolls pull the wheat-stock
down with the rolls into the gap between the rolls
or into the grinding zone. The wheat is crushed
slightly and only a small quantity of white flour
is produced. After sieving, the coarsest mate-
rial is conveyed to the second break rolls. These
rolls are set a little closer together than the first
break rolls. Therefore, the material is crushed
finer, and more endosperm particles are released.

Usually the process of grinding and sifting is re-
peated five to six times.
Roller mills have been made with different
roll configurations such as two or four pairs of
rolls in one stand. The roll surface can be smooth
or corrugated, with grooves (flutes) running the
length of the surface of the roll in a spiral to pro-
duce and support cutting or shear action. The
grinding action of a pair of rolls is influenced
by manufacture (diameter, length and surface of
the rolls, profile differential direction, number of
corrugations, and revolutions per minute, rpm).
Sieving. After each grinding step the ground
material is conveyed to a plane sifter with a series
of sloping sieves. The sifter gyrates, so the finer
particles pass through the sieves from the head
(top) to the tail (bottom). The plane sifter has
multiple sections containing up to 30 sieves that
gyrate horizontally to move the stock. During
sieving, three classes of material are separated:
– coarse fractions, which are fed to the next
break until only bran remains,
– flour, or fine particles, passing through the
finest (flour) sieve, and
– intermediate granular particles (middlings)
Purification. Purification separates bran par-
ticles and germ from the endosperm. The pro-
cess is the gradual reduction of middlings from
the endosperm and the flattening of the germ
and bran particles so that they can be removed
in the sifter. The middlings are fragments of en-
dosperm and small pieces of bran and the germ.
Since the late 1990s the role of purifiers in the
mill flow diagram has diminished as millers have
become more aware of cost. The trend is to pro-
duce baker’s flour with a little higher ash content
because there is less demand for low ash patent
flour. This tendency reduces the need for inten-
sive purification.
Reduction. The purified and classified mid-
dlings are continuously pulverized to flour bet-
ween smooth reduction rolls, which revolve at a
differential of about 1.5:1. The flour particle size
depends on the space between the rolls. Each re-
duction step is followed by sieving.
The germs are released largely by the break
system and appear as yellow particles in some
of the coarser middling streams. These streams
are called sizings. The germs are flattened as the
sizings are reduced and are separated as flakes
during sieving.
Cereals 25
Flour Handling and Blending. Each grind-
ing and sieving operation produces flour. The
flour blending department has facilities for spe-
cial treatments of the flour: infestation con-
trol, enrichment and additives, flour stabiliza-
tion, flour drying, fine grinding, and air clas-
sification. A process computer can be used for
fully automatic operation of flour blending, final
packing, and loading for shipment to the cus-
tomer.
Different countries have different flour
grades. In the USA the average flour yield is
about 72 %, with 14 % bran and 14 % shorts.
Moreover, patent flour (± 45 % extraction),
short patent flour (65 – 68 % extraction), and
straight flour (72 % extraction) exist.
In most European countries the flour grades
are based on ash content. The German flour types
are as follows:
Wheat flour Content of mineral matters (d.m.)
Wheat flour Content of mineral matters (d.m.)
Type 405 0.38 – 0.47 %
Type 550 0.49 – 0.58 %
Type 630 0.60 – 0.70 %
Type 812 0.75 – 0.87 %
Type 1050 1.00 – 1.15 %
Type 1600 1.55 – 1.75 %
The average total flour yield in Germany is
about 80 %. Some other countries use a flour
grading system based on flour color, not ash con-
tent.
To improve baking strength of wheat flour,
some compounds are added in very small
amounts. Flour bleaching was introduced as
early as 1879 in Great Britain and around
1900 in North America. Currently, many bread
flours and practically all cake flours in the USA
are bleached. Furthermore, maturing agents are
used to obtain maximum baking performance.
In North America, potassium bromate is allowed
to improve the baking strength of wheat flour. In
the EU only ascorbic acid may be used legally
as a flour improver. The bleaching agent benzo-
yl peroxide is not allowed in the EU. The quan-
titative requirement for oxidation of flour de-
pends on several factors. Flour with higher pro-
tein content requires an increase in oxidation, but
naturally time-aged wheat and flour need less
26 Cereals
oxidation. The tolerance of flour to overtreat-
ment varies with the improvers. Flour can toler-
ate overtreatment with ascorbic acid much better
than with other improvers such as potassium bro-
mate. Ascorbic acid is added at a level of about
10 – 20 ppm in some European countries and of
about 25 – 75 ppm in the U.S. baking industry.
Infestation and Pest Control. Pests in flour
mills are insects, rodents, birds, and microbes.
Removing pests can be done both nonchemi-
cally or chemically. Nonchemical means are, of
course, preferred because fumigants may leave a
residue. In the past, insects were controlled with
fumigants but now physical control is more com-
mon, especially heat. The air in the mill build-
ings is heated to about 50 ◦ C for 24 h; these con-
ditions kill all insects and also rodents [44].
Air Classification and Fine Grinding. Wheat
flour produced by conventional roller mills con-
tains particles from 1 – 200 µm. The flour can
be ground (pin-milled) to fine particles in which
the protein is separated from the starch. This
fine flour can then pass through an air classifier.
Particles smaller than 20 µm have up to twice
the protein content than the unfractionated flour.
The fraction with particles sizes between 20 and
40 µm has the normal protein content, and the
fraction with particle sizes more than 40 µm has
lower protein content. The high-protein flour is
used to fortify low-protein bread flours or for
enrichment in the production of specialty baked
goods. Air classification has generated consid-
erable interest in the milling industry, especially
in producing flours with specific characteristics
[44].
Quality Control and Analysis. To obtain an
accurate analysis of the flour and provide infor-
mation for blending the components into a final
product, an exact sampling system is important.
There are on-line automatic samplers, which can
sample a flour stream before it enters the storage
bin. Sampling systems provide representative
samples of mill products for the laboratory or for
on-line instrumentation. In the laboratory, rou-
tine testing includes the determination of ash,
protein, and moisture contents, starch damage,
and particle size distribution. Also, a baking test
and a physical, i.e., rheological test on dough
are performed. On-line quality control of mill
products becomes a necessity in large capacity
milling units. NIR analysis is used for on-line
determination of parameters such as moisture,
protein, and ash contents. Flour color is also de-
termined on-line in the modern mill [33].
Whole Wheat Products. Whole wheat prod-
ucts are produced from the whole wheat ker-
nel without any separation, and thus include
endosperm, bran, and germ. The grinding of
the wheat (or rye) can be done with stones or
rolls with specified granulation [46, 47]. Using
a roller mill, the system includes a small sifter
which leads the oversized ground meal particles
back to the grinding system for further reduc-
tion. The specifications for whole wheat prod-
ucts should be the same in both the USA and EU.
Because the product is made from whole wheat
meals, the raw material must be extremely well
cleaned, including an intensive surface cleaning
of the grains.
Whole wheat products are produced with dif-
ferent particle sizes: coarse, medium, and fine
whole meals. Whole meal flour should pass to
80 % through 200 µm sieve openings. Under
these conditions, the endosperm is milled to the
same particle size as the normal flour. Therefore,
a normal dough development, good gas reten-
tion, and an optimum bread volume are obtained.
With coarse whole wheat products, the gluten-
forming during dough mixing is hindered and
aggravated. Therefore, gas retention and bread
volume are much lower. Whole-meal products
like whole-meal bread, whole-meal buns, and
whole-meal cakes are advertised as having the
highest dietary fiber content of all baked prod-
ucts. Therefore, consuming whole-meal prod-
ucts can add to the daily dietary fiber intake.
Whole-meal pasta has a lower dietary fiber con-
tent than whole-meal bread because the moisture
content after cooking is higher than 80 %.
Durum Wheat Milling. The objective of du-
rum milling is to produce a maximum yield
of highly purified semolina without specks.
Therefore, the design of the milling system dif-
fers somewhat from the normal wheat mill. In
semolina manufacture, impurities must be re-
moved by cleaning and purifying systems. The
reduction system is shorter in durum mills be-
cause of the particle size of the semolina (250 –
400 µm). Durum wheat with good milling qual-
ity yields 62 – 65 % semolina. In the 1990s the
particle size distribution of semolina was very
much reduced in combination with modern mix-
ing systems in macaroni production lines [48].

6.1.2. Rye
In some countries in Europe (Denmark, Ger-
many, Poland, and the Russian Republic), rye
is still an important raw material for bread
[49 – 52]. But even in these countries consump-
tion of rye and rye-wheat mixed breads is de-
creasing. The ratio of rye to wheat in bread con-
sumption in Germany has declined to only about
18 % rye, with 82 % wheat products. Rye flour
has no gluten, and therefore, the gas retention
capacity is lower than in wheat doughs. Rye
bread has usually half the bread volume of wheat
bread, so most rye flour is used in a blend with
wheat flour for bread.
Rye is milled to flour in a process similar to
that described for wheat. Very often ergot, a poi-
sonous contaminant, is in the raw material and
must be removed to a maximum level of 0.05 %.
The bran of the rye kernel adheres tenaciously
to the endosperm. Therefore, it is not practi-
cal to produce clean middlings or purify them
by aspiration. The objective of rye milling is to
produce flour during the breaking process. The
break rolls are set relatively close and have finer
corrugations than those used in milling wheat.
Rye grain requires little tempering because it is
very difficult to separate the bran from the en-
dosperm. Rye flours have higher ash contents
than wheat flours at similar extraction. More-
over, bread with a high percentage of rye flour
in the recipe can only be produced by adding
acids or using sourdough formula.
6.1.3. Maize
Maize is dry-milled for human consumption
using two general methods: mill stones (old
milling process) or steel rolls (modern milling
process).
6.2. Dehulling
Dehulling is necessary for all so-called “covered
cereals” such as rice, spelt wheat, oats, millet,
sorghum, and some pseudocereals such as buck-
wheat. The kernels are enclosed with a tough
siliceous hull that is unsuitable for human con-
sumption [42, 53]. After removing the hulls, the
kernel is obtained, consisting of the inner and
Cereals 27
outer bran, the endosperm, and the germ. Before
dehulling, the grain must be intensively cleaned.
Many machines can separate the hulls from the
kernels.
Conventional shellers consist of two steel
blades mounted horizontally. The inner surfaces
are coated with a mixture of cement and car-
borundum. One blade is stationary and the other
rotates. When the blade revolves, pressure on
the ends of the upturned grains disengages the
hulls. The hulls are removed by intense aspi-
ration, and the remaining hulled and unhulled
grains are separated in a paddy machine. In this
machine, the unhulled grains move upwards and
the heavier, hulled grains move down. After the
dehulling process, the grains are considered as
whole grain, because they still have their bran,
endosperm and germ.
After dehulling, grains like rice are sent to
machines with grooved tapering cylinders that
revolve rapidly in stationary, uniformly perfo-
rated cylinders. The outside bran layers and
germ are removed by the scouring action of the
rice grains moving against themselves near the
surface of the perforated cylinder. After passing
through a succession of hullers, rice is nearly
free of germ and outer bran. Scouring is usu-
ally completed by polishing in a brush machine.
The polished rice contains whole endosperms
and broken kernel particles of various sizes. The
broken particles are usually separated by grad-
ing reels or disc separators.
For barley, the hulls are gradually removed
by a pearling process; the outer portion of the
barley kernel is removed by abrasion. These de-
hulled whole barley kernels are ready to be used
as human food. Barley flour and barley grits are
made from dehulled barley kernels by gradual
reduction in a roller milling similar to the pro-
cess of milling wheat.
The oat milling process has the following
aims:
– dehulling the oat kernel,
– improving the shelf-life of the final product,
– increasing digestibility, and
– improving sensory characteristics.
In the cleaning process, the small oat ker-
nels must be removed because their hull con-
tent makes up to 60 % of the whole kernel. The
hull is separated with dehulling stones or im-
pact milling. The dehulling stones consist of a
28 Cereals
lower stone, which is flat and stationary, and an
upper stone, which is slightly conical and ro-
tates rapidly. The hulls are separated from the
kernels by aspiration. The dehulled kernels are
given a hydrothermal treatment to inactivate en-
zymes in the high fat content of the oat kernel.
Using steam, the temperature increases within a
few minutes up to 87 ◦ C, and moisture increases
up to 20 % [54]. Then, contact heating increases
the temperature up to 100 ◦ C for about 15 min.
After this, the kernels are cooled to 8◦ C, and the
moisture content is reduced to 12 %. The end
product of oat processing is the oat flake. The
flake is produced from steam-treated oat kernels
or oat grits using a flake roll. It is also possible
to produce oat bran with dietary fiber content up
to 20 % by grinding and sieving steam-treated
oat kernels.
6.3. Wet-Milling Process
The wet-milling industry uses about 80 % of pro-
cessed maize to produce maize starch, sweeten-
ers, maize oil, and various feed byproducts. The
remainder is used in various food products using
a dry-milling process as well as alcoholic bev-
erages [55, 56]. Maize is processed for human
food in the following ways:
– to be eaten as whole kernels;
– ground to make hominy;
– milled for maize grits, meal, or flour; and
– converted to a variety of breakfast foods.
Maize or wheat starch is produced from
maize or wheat flour by the wet-milling process.
The starch kernels are separated from the raw
material using a multiple wet-sieving process.
For this sieving process, special equipment is
used, i.e., hydrocyclones, multicyclones, three-
face dye separators, etc. After wet-sieving, the
moisture content of the starch is reduced by
mechanical separation and then by drying. Very
high drying temperatures cannot be used to re-
duce the moisture content because starch gran-
ules are thermolabile and the gelatinization char-
acteristics can deteriorate.
The following end products can be produced
from 100 kg maize: 61 kg starch, 7 kg germs,
7 kg maize bran, and 5 kg gluten.
Sorghum is also wet-milled, but finer mash
screens are necessary. Sorghum starch is simi-
lar to maize starch but is blander and does not
become rancid.
6.4. Extrusion Process
Cereals can be processed into food by extrusion
(Fig. 4). High-temperature short-time (HTST)
extrusion cooking is used extensively to produce
different products for infant foods, snacks, con-
venience foods, expanded pet food, feed, and
cereals for industry [57].
The basic components of an HTST extrusion
cooking system are as follows:
– continuous and uniform feeding of the raw
material to the extruder;
– preconditioning the materials with steam or
water at a controlled temperature (moisture:
20 to 30 % and heat: up to 80 %);
– controlling temperature during the whole pro-
cess;
– controlling residence time in the extruder to
optimize temperature, shear, and agitation;
– controlling extrudate shape and size; and
– drying, cooling, sizing, or heating the product
by adding flavors, vitamins, or fats, etc.
Figure 4. Extrusion cylinder
Pasta products are also processed by extru-
sion but in a cold-extrusion process. The first
mechanical process to extrude pasta products
rather than cut them from sheeted dough dates
back to the early 1800s. Mixers, kneaders, hy-
draulic presses, and drying cabinets have been
also used since the turn of 20th century. Contin-
uous extrusion dates from the 1920s and fully
automated processing, weighing, and packaging
were introduced only in the 1950s.
High-quality pasta products are processed
from semolina milled from durum wheat. The

advantage of durum wheat is its high protein
content and the yellow color of the endosperm.
There are pasta products processed only from
semolina, water, and salt while other types have
eggs as an important part of the recipe. In dif-
ferent countries, egg pasta should have a defined
amount of egg content in the recipe.
Alimentary pastas are formed by extrusion
on large automatic machines. Water and other
ingredients are added to make stiff dough with
a water content of about 30 %. The dough is
then forced under pressure through dies of an ex-
trusion machine. The dies for long goods, e.g.,
spaghetti, consist of a metal plate with drilled
holes. The extruded spaghetti is folded on a rack,
cut to length and dried on hanging rods under
carefully controlled conditions. The temperature
program during that drying process is very im-
portant for the cooking quality of the pasta. In
former times, the drying temperature was about
40 to 50 ◦ C, which did not improve the microbi-
ological status. Most modern drying equipment
uses high-temperature drying at 90 to 100 ◦ C.
Accelerated drying has enhanced both produc-
tion efficiency and also product quality. Pasta
products marketed in Europe and the western
hemisphere have the following sizes:
– Spaghetti – small diameter, solid rods;
– Macaroni – hollow tubes of different sizes;
– Noodles – flat strips or extruded oval strips;
and
– Variety products – cut by rotating or a blade
cutters.
Some pasta companies have tried to intro-
duce pasta made from whole durum meal flour
to introduce dietary fiber into consumer diets,
but customers did not accept this whole meal
pasta because of color and the taste.
7. Specific Properties and Use of
Grains
7.1. Wheat
Wheat (Triticum ssp.) is often referred to as the
main and only bread cereal. Even though wheat
production worldwide is likely the same as that
of rice and maize (Table 1.), wheat appears to
be the most important cereal and is constantly
Cereals 29
gaining importance. Originating in the Arabian
Peninsula and Near East, wheat has spread to
Europe, but also to eastern parts of Asia and to
North Africa and was brought by immigrants to
America and Australia. As a bread cereal, kernel
hardness and structure affect processing proper-
ties in milling, and the proteins that form gluten,
a network of strands and membranes providing
fermenting dough with the gas retention neces-
sary for leavening, affect baking properties [41,
58 – 61].
Botanically or genetically, wheat is a cereal
differing much in number and type of genomes
and in shape and characteristics of the spikes.
The characteristics of spikes of wild, primi-
tive wheat and of naked, cultivated forms are
still present. Primitive wheat does not thresh
well, breaking into spikelets covered closely
with chaff, which must be removed from the
kernel by dehulling before milling. In contrast,
the spikes of cultivated naked wheat thresh well,
freeing the kernel easily and ready for milling.
According to the number of chromosomes and
genomes, wheat is either einkorn (T. monococ-
cum) with the genome AA, or emmer (T. dic-
occum) with the tetraploid genome AABB, or
finally common wheat (T. aestivum or vulgare)
with the hexaploid genome AABBDD. Wheat
with all the three types of genomes can be used
for producing bread, but common wheat with
the AABBDD genome has proved to process
best, given bread volume and crumb properties
(chewability) of breads and other bakery items.
The tetraploid durum wheat (AABB) is mainly
used for producing pasta from semolina, but in
some countries of Southern Europe, Near East
Asia, and North Africa the durum wheat is also
used for bread making.
Wheat hardness can be separated largely into
three classes including soft, hard, and extra hard
(durum) wheat. Soft wheat flour has low pro-
tein content (7 – 9 %) and is good for making
cake and cookies with extraction rates of 40 –
50 %, whereas hard wheat flour has higher pro-
tein contents (10 – 14 %) and is preferred for
breadmaking with extraction rates of 70 %. Du-
rum flour has the highest protein contents (12
– 16 %) and is mainly used for making pasta.
Hardness is governed by interaction (adhesion)
between starch granules and protein matrix cov-
ering starch granules. Soft wheat has a special
protein (M r 15 000, friabilin), which hard wheat
30 Cereals
does not have, on the surface of starch granules.
This protein prevents adhesion between starch
granules and the protein matrix. The friabilin
is known to be composed of two major proteins
called puroindolines-a and -b. Either the absence
of puroindoline-a or the presence of a glycine to
serine mutation in puroindoline-b is required for
grain hardness [12].
The applicability of milled wheat in bread
making depends on the ability of wheat pro-
teins to build gluten when mixed and kneaded
with water and other ingredients into dough.
The developed gluten is a cohesive viscoelastic
mass of strands and membranes, which provide
the dough with moldability and gas retention.
Molded, shaped, and formed dough should pre-
serve its loaf form through the process of bread-
making and retain the gas produced by yeast.
Thus, the dough must be kneaded to a desired
consistency, and the added water plays an im-
portant role as a plasticizer and softener.
The glutenin and gliadin ratio in gluten mass
determines the physical and chemical proper-
ties of the proteins in flour, i.e., the viscoelas-
tic properties of dough, its stretchability, and
its firmness [60, 62]. The physical and chemi-
cal properties of wheat proteins are genetically
linked and so far, are characteristic of a cultivar,
although they are also influenced by the environ-
ment. A rather dry climate and soil deficient in
nitrogen produce more glutenin protein in wheat
with low protein content, and thus a firm and
short dough resulting in low volume bread. On
the other hand, a moderate climate and partic-
ularly soil with plenty of nitrogen promote the
synthesis of gliadin protein, which softens the
physical dough properties and ensures leaven-
ing, and consequently, gives a high bread volume
and palatable crumb.
Optimal stretchability and firmness of the
dough gives a bread of good quality and ap-
pearance, which will sell well and taste good.
A second crucial quality characteristic of flour
in the bread making process is the activity of
α-amylase. The quality of wheat is, therefore,
also characterized by α-amylase activity. Only
a well-balanced quality of gluten and α-amylase
activity in flour guarantees the best quality bak-
ery items. Both properties, including gluten
quality and sprout resistance, are intrinsic, i.e.,
genetically controlled, but also depend on envi-
ronment and thus are influenced by climate and
tillage. Physiologically, wheat produced using
organic or alternative agriculture (applying low
manure) has a higher ratio of essential amino
acids, e.g., lysine, expressed as a percentage of
the protein than that of wheat produced by ap-
plying high nitrogen fertilization. However, the
wheat produced under high fertilization has a
significantly higher protein content, the lysine
content in a slice of bread, expressed in grams,
is distinctly higher than that in bread produced
by alternative or organic agriculture.
Most wheat is used to produce food, but
wheat is also used in feed and in industry. This
variability in properties and versatility of use
make wheat indeed unique [59]. Processing for
food starts in a mill that produces a variety of
milled products. The milled products (flours of
different grades, farina, semolina, and meals)
are used to produce bread and other small bak-
ery items of different types, pasta, confectionery,
and breakfast cereals. The requirements of phys-
ical and chemical properties of flour, as a raw
material for a variety of end-products, make it
necessary rather to speak about the suitability
of a specific flour for a specific purpose but not
about quality in general. A specific product re-
quires specific properties of flour, a degree of
fines (particle distribution), contents and prop-
erties of proteins, and enzyme activities. These
can be achieved by selecting wheat, choosing
an adequate milling diagram, and adjusting the
flour by blending, enriching and supplementing.
Each baker can obtain from the mill the flour tai-
lored for specific purposes.
Through long years of growing and selecting,
wheat yields have been increased and wheat can
be processed more easily but has lost the intrin-
sic robustness of a wild grass. Grown intensively
across large areas, wheat needs intensive agri-
cultural control, fertilization, and protection to
achieve both high yield and quality. The genetic
and spike characteristics determine the end use
and thus determine the spread of wheat forms.
Out of the known forms, only the highly cul-
tivated and selected tetraploid durum and the
hexaploid common wheat are grown on a large
scale. Because of the green movement in some
countries, the farming of einkorn, emmer, and
particularly of spelt wheat (T. spelta), a primi-
tive hexaploid wheat, had for a short time some
success, but interest in this ancient wheat has
waned. Spelt wheat was considered a healthy

field product, protected by chaff from air pol-
lution, and containing substances relevant for
wellness [63, 64]. The belief that spelt is good
for celiac patients, has not been proved, because
spelt has the same genome as common wheat,
producing gluten proteins and seriously harm-
ing the intestinal walls of celiac patients. How-
ever, spelt is a welcome form of wheat, grown in
adverse climatic conditions in mountain regions
and ecological niches that should be offered to
the consumers who appreciate spelt.
Kamut wheat and selenium-rich wheat are
other sources of healthy products such as bread
or breakfast cereals. Kamut has a higher content
of protein and of essential amino acids than com-
mon wheat and has a specific nutty taste. Sele-
nium is an important micronutrient that appears
to be deficient in some regions. Grown on soils
containing selenium, wheat and its products may
contain more of this element beyond the thresh-
old estimated to be necessary for health.
Some wheat is used in animal feed. Although
the protein levels and the amino acid composi-
tion of all cereals are not sufficient for an ef-
fective feed, the cereals and wheat have suffi-
cient starch content to supply energy [61]. Fed
to poultry and pigs in ratios of more than 50 %,
wheat provides animals with metabolizable en-
ergy, but for their growth and healthy devel-
opment, the feed must be supplemented with
other sources of plant or animal proteins and
minerals. The nonstarch polysaccharides, cellu-
lose and pentosans (arabinoxylans and xylans),
may have antinutritive effects, particularly with
poultry. Adding enzymes to degrade the pen-
tosans has proved effective in increasing uptake
and digestibility of proteins and fats from feed
containing wheat and barley. Microbial and fun-
gal contaminations, particularly with Fusarium
graminearum and smut spores (Tiletia sp.), af-
fect voluntary feed-intakes. Thus, the feed to
gain performance of animal meat production is
affected.
Surpluses of cereals beyond what is needed
for food and feed have found other possible uses.
Cereals in general and wheat in particular have
been used as a raw material in nonfood industry
[59]. Wheat can be used as a whole plant or as
milled products, milled to a requested degree of
extraction. Wheat straw can be used in the paper
industry, and wheat starch and gluten, separated
by wet milling in a starch mill, are already in use
Cereals 31
as sizing and coating material in paper manufac-
turing.
The separation of starch and gluten by wet-
milling is a traditional use of wheat flours, and
the starch and starch derivatives have very differ-
ent properties. Both starch and gluten are used
for both food and nonfood industries. Starch is
used as a binder in soups, sauces, sausages, in
pudding-jellies, and as a component in paper
and wood adhesives, but also in medicine and
pharmacy as carrier of medicaments (→ Starch).
Gluten, as a byproduct of starch production, is
used as an additive to feed and as an adhesive
(→ Proteins, Chap. 2.1.1). Specific gluten, not
damaged in drying, is called vital gluten and is
used to fortify flours, as a protein-fortifier, and as
an improver in flours for specific bakery items.
Wheat and wheat starch is also a source for
chemicals. Fermented and distilled alcohol as a
beverage or for industrial purposes is only one
of chemical products. Starch is also a source of
polyols, of biodegradable plastics, and of rubber
additives. A promising and interesting branch
of starch products are the microbial polysaccha-
rides that transform starch to new polymers of
useful properties. These uses, and many others,
of starch and gluten have been discussed, open-
ing new possibilities in production and use of
starch and gluten [56].
7.2. Rye
Rye (Secale cereale) is the main crop in regions
with adverse growing conditions for other ce-
reals [49, 51, 52]. As a modest plant, it can be
grown on poor soils, providing a higher yield
than wheat. In addition, rye is resistant to cold,
drought, pests, and diseases, and its yield po-
tential on good soils is comparable to that of
wheat. The hybrid cultivars are particularly high
yielding. However, rye is susceptible to lodging,
to preharvest sprouting, and to ergot, which in
years with high rain fall obviates its use as food
and feed. Nevertheless, rye in former times has
made growing of wheat possible, because rye
and wheat were sown together expecting to ob-
tain a yield from rye when the wheat, under bad
conditions, failed.
Rye is milled to integral flour and meal, and
highly extracted to dark flour with a rather high
mineral content. It is used in sour-dough bread,
32 Cereals
pure or blended with wheat flour. Unlike wheat,
the allotment of water-soluble proteins of rye (up
to 40 %) is higher than for wheat, and therefore,
rye does not form a firm gluten mass. The baking
behavior of milled rye products is affected by its
pentosan (arabinoxylan) content [65, 66]. The
pentosan content may vary between 7 to 10 % in
kernels; it is low in flour (2 – 4 %) and high in
whole kernel meal and particularly in bran. Rye
is a good source of minerals, vitamins, dietary
fiber, β-glucan, and of lignan (phytohormones
such as secoisolariciresinol and matairesinol),
that can help prevent cancer [22, 24 – 26, 28,
51, 67].
Due to its high content of the essential amino
acids, particularly of lysine, rye was at one time
considered an effective feed for pigs. However,
the use of rye as feed is limited by its content
of alkylresorcinol and antinutritive substances
such as pentosan, which are indigestible and also
presents starch and proteins from being digested.
Rye is still a cheap component in feed and pet
food and is also used for various industrial pur-
poses [68].
7.3. Triticale
The first report on triticale, a genus bastard of
wheat and rye, was recorded at the end of 19th
century. Triticale was a spontaneous cross bet-
ween the two genera, but the incompatibility of
chromosome number meant it was sterile. At
the beginning of the 20th century, a fertile prod-
uct of the crossing between wheat and rye was
achieved; since then quite a number of inten-
sive breeding projects have been started. Trit-
icale is the first man-made cereal, and today
a great number of adapted cultivars are grown
around the world, particularly where soil con-
ditions are adverse. The main producers of new
cultivars and mercantile lots are Canada, Mex-
ico, Germany, and Poland, but Australia has also
made efforts to breed and grow triticale. The
produced triticale has not been yet registered by
FAO statistics.
The general idea was to combine the mod-
esty and resistance of the rye plants with the
milling and baking properties of wheat. The gen-
eral problem with this combination is how to ob-
tain fertile types and cultivars of triticale starting
with parents with different numbers of genomes.
The rye genome of 7 chromosomes must be in-
creased to 14 chromosomes to be compatible
with hexaploid wheat (T. durum) or to 21 chro-
mosomes for octaploid type of wheat (T. aes-
tivum or vulgare). This can be obtained only
by disrupting chromosome division with toxic
colchicines or with ionizing irradiation. Triti-
cale cultivars are either primary (rye × wheat)
or secondary (triticale × triticale).
As a product of different parental properties,
the properties of triticale cultivars lie interme-
diate between wheat and rye, with different al-
lotments of each parent. In growth habit and in
processing, some triticale cultivars are more like
wheat and others more like rye, but the main aim,
to crop wheat from rye plants, has not yet been
reached. Triticale yield has not reached yield po-
tentials of wheat, nor are its baking properties
(weak gluten, susceptibility to sprouting) equal
to wheat [65, 69]. Nevertheless, many bakeries
produce triticale bread with an adapted formula.
In general, triticale is susceptible to preharvest
sprouting requiring special care at harvest and
as it is processed to bread. Triticale seems to be
rich in protein and in essential amino acids, like
rye, which is good for animal feed. Thus, trit-
icale is a feed grain, mostly used on the home
farm.
Several wheat cultivars with high-baking
quality do have rye chromosomes introduced for
resistances, which have not been detrimental to
their baking properties. This promises that triti-
cale cultivars of good processing value and bak-
ing properties can be created. Cereal breeders
and processors would be interested in such cul-
tivars and offer a bakery item to consumers or
consumers would ask for it.
Triticale can be used as any other cereals for
various industrial uses, as a source of chemicals
and as a source of energy. Attempts have been
made to breed triticale cultivars with a high-yield
potential and a high total mass of dry matters,
which can be burned to produce heat or energy
as a renewable biomass resource.
7.4. Barley
Barley (Hordeum vulgarum) is probably the old-
est and the most widely grown cereal in the
world. Its winter hardness and resistance to cli-
mate and soil adversity mean that barley is grown

farther north and higher in the mountains than
any other cereal [70]. Barley is grown world-
wide as two main types, two-rowed and six-
rowed barley, and also as winter and spring bar-
ley. Most produced barley is used as feed, with
small portions as malt and food. And yet the im-
age of barley is closely connected with brewing
of beer. The six-rowed winter barley is used for
feed in Europe and the two-rowed for malting,
in America the six-rowed barley is preferred for
malting.
As food, milled barley was used for bread-
making, later as pearled barley in porridge and
soups, and ground to semolina as couscous. Re-
cently, barley flakes were introduced and used
in bakeries and in breakfast cereals. In any case,
barley grain must be dehulled prior to milling.
Other types of barley are hull-less, thus avoiding
the disadvantages of dehulling, and have been
promoted. The rediscovered hull-less barley and
the new high-lysine barley found acceptance for
both food and feed. For this and for its high
content of soluble β-glucan, barley products are
considered healthy, reducing blood cholesterol
and heart disease, and helping prevent colon can-
cer. These all might have increased the barley
consumption, but barley will never regain its for-
mer importance as food [70].
Barley is fed to ruminants (cattle, sheep),
monogastric animals (predominantly pigs), and
poultry; as a starch-rich product, it contributes
to the animals’ energy supply. Barley grown for
feed has a higher protein level than that grown
for malting. For better digestion, the barley ker-
nel should be rolled or flaked for ruminants or
ground by a hammer mill for monogastric ani-
mals. Barley glucans seem to reduce availability
of starch and protein fed to poultry and to pro-
duce sticky faeces. Therefore, adding enzymes
with β-glucanase is recommended.
Barley is also a cheap ingredient for alcoholic
beverages. To produce malt for both beer and
distilling, whole plump barley with unharmed
germ, a high potential of enzymatic activities,
and low protein content is required. Even so, dif-
ferent distilled alcoholic beverages, such as malt
whisky or grain whisky, have different require-
ments. In the malt whisky prepared only from
barley malt, the malt should have a high level of
starch and only enough enzymes to degrade the
endogenous starch in the malt. Grain whisky,
on the other hand, contains a limited amount
Cereals 33
of barley malt to produce enzymes that degrade
starch from adjunct starch from other cereals.
The difference lies in the enzymatic activities of
the malt types. Barley for brewing should have a
good proportion of active starch-degrading en-
zymes and low soluble protein content. It should
be free of undesirable compounds such as β-
glucan and polyphenols. Different types of malt
have different aromas, flavors, and colors and
hence give special character to the final brew.
Although beer consumption is decreasing, it re-
mains the most popular beverage worldwide.
7.5. Oats
Oat is a genus comprising many wild, weedy,
and cultivated species found and grown in all
agricultural areas. Of the cultivated species,
white oats (Avena sativa) is the most wide
spread. It is grown as a spring cereal; its inflo-
rescence is a panicle bearing hulled kernels. Be-
sides the hulled type, a naked type of oats (Avena
sativa var. nuda, former Avena nuda) has been
pushed by breeders but did not find wide ac-
ceptance [71]. Oat kernels are unique, with high
levels of dietary fiber, good quality proteins, and
high levels of lipids, all making oats a healthy
cereal. Indeed, its healing effects and medical
value have been described early in the history of
mankind [22, 72].
Oats are used both for food and feed. De-
hulled and milled into groats or flaked oats,
the cereal is highly appreciated, prepared as
porridge and oatcake, flour for baby food, and
breakfast cereals. A white kernel, unspotted by
bacteria, is required to produce clean, white
products. Nude oats with their unprotected ker-
nels often do not meet these requirements. In the
flaking process, oats are heat-treated, giving the
product a pleasant nutty taste and preventing the
flakes from deteriorating by enzymatic oxida-
tion of lipids (oats peroxidase). This treatment
prolongs the shelf life of oat products in com-
parison to untreated oats. The commercial prod-
ucts are rolled oats, steel-cut groats, and quick
oats produced from them, baby oats, instant oat
flakes, oat flour, and oat bran. In the hulls and
in the outer parts of the oat kernel also an anti-
carcinogenic factor has been found, increasing
the health value of oat products. Some oat prod-
ucts are used in bread making, providing bak-
34 Cereals
ery items with nutritional benefits, typical flavor,
and moisture retention, and thus a longer shelf
life. Bread making with oats is only possible in
combination with wheat flour.
Oats have been used mostly as feed, espe-
cially for horses. Even today, oats are preferred
feed for horses because of their palatability,
digestibility, and nutritional quality, although
low-cost alternative feed containing maize, soy
meal, cottonseed meal, and canola meal has been
brought on the market. Compared to hulled oats,
such products have higher energy density and
are more effective in feed. The dietary fiber,
β-glucan, seems to reduce feed performance in
young animals. The fact that nude oats also have
high energy density suggests that oats may re-
gain its position, at least for racing horses.
In the nonfood field, oat hulls are an impor-
tant milling byproduct as a source for production
of furfural. Novel products such as oat starch are
used as adhesives and in cosmetics. In another
novel process, oats are treated with α-amylase,
the water-soluble dietary fiber separated from
insoluble materials and used as a fat replacer
for bakery products. This and the cholesterol re-
ducing properties of oat products may open the
market to new oat products.
7.6. Rice
The rice grain, a covered caryopsis, slightly
smaller than wheat, is flattened laterally, and has
a small point at the end distal from the germ.
The kernel is enclosed in a tough siliceous hull
that is unsuitable for human consumption. Rice
(Oryza sativa L.) is one of the leading food crops
in the world and the staple food for more than
half the world’s population. It is considered a
semi-aquatic, annual grass plant. Cultivars of
the two cultivated species, O. sativa L. and O.
glaberrima Steud., can grow in a wide range
of water-soil regimes including over 100 coun-
tries on every continent except Antarctica. An-
nual production (601.61 × 106 t) of rough rice,
paddy, approaches that of corn (604.560 × 106
t) and exceeds that of wheat (586.91 × 106 t), as
shown in Table 1.
Rice and wheat are the two most important
food grains, because maize is used mainly as
feed except in Latin America and parts of Asia.
Rice is the staple food of East, Southeast, and
South Asia. This region produces 91 % of to-
tal world production (Table 1). When the hull is
removed from the rough rice, or paddy, the ker-
nel or caryopsis, comprising the pericarp and
the seed proper is known as brown rice. When
brown rice is milled further, the bran, aleurone
layer, and germ are removed, and the purified
endosperms are marketed as white rice, polished
rice, or milled rice.
Among cereal grains, paddy, or rough rice,
is unique in that it is milled as whole grain, not
flour. It is also unique in that milled rice can
take two forms, white rice (raw rice, i.e., non-
parboiled) or parboiled rice, obtained by treating
paddy rice with water and heat before it is dried
and milled. Parboiled rice likely originated in an-
cient India, but the exact origin is unknown. Par-
boiled rice is the major staple food throughout
the Indian subcontinent, where more than 90 %
of the world’s parboiled rice is produced and
consumed. It is estimated that approximately
20 % of the world’s rice is parboiled [73, 74].
The uses of rice components and coprod-
ucts include (1) stabilized rice bran for health
foods, cereals, baked goods, fat replacer, and di-
etary supplements as a source of fiber as well
as oryzanol, a phytosterol esterified to ferulic
acid, demonstrated to reduce serum cholesterols
in human; (2) rice bran oil, a high-quality cook-
ing oil with an excellent balance of fatty acids
and excellent frying oil with low formation of
peroxides, foam, free fatty acids, and polymers;
(3) rice starch as a cosmetic dusting powder,
laundry stiffening agent, paper and photograph
paper powder, sugar coating in confectionery,
excipient for pharmaceutical tablets, and fat re-
placers, due to the smallest granule size and very
white color of rice bran; and (4) rice protein con-
centrates with good amino acid balances. Uses
for rice hulls include roughage for cattle feed;
chicken litter; ammoniated for fertilizers; filter
aids; burnt hulls for floor-sweepings; fuel; abra-
sives; binder for pelleted feeds; insulating ma-
terial; filler for building materials; binders and
absorbents for pesticides, explosives, and other
materials; and also in the commercial manufac-
ture of furfural, although their pentosan content
is lower than that of oat hulls or maize cobs.

7.7. Sorghum and Millets
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is
an ancient grain first domesticated in Africa
and spread to other parts of the world around
3000 B.C. Sorghum is a drought-resistant ce-
real grain, often growing in semiarid conditions
where other cereal grains cannot. Sorghum is
a tropical cereal grass like rice and maize. It
is a diploid plant with 2n = 20 chromosomes
like maize. However, it has a relatively small
genome, only one-third the size of maize [75].
Among cereal grains, sorghum ranks fifth, with
57.9 × 106 t harvested between 1999 and 2001
(Table 1). The major sorghum producing centers
are in Africa and Asia (54.4 % of total produc-
tion), with 34 % of the world supply of sorghum
grown in North and Central America. About
30 % of the world production is provided by
the USA, mainly from Kansas, Texas, Nebraska,
and Missouri [76].
The relative proportions of pericarp, en-
dosperm, and germ in the sorghum seed account
for 6, 84, and 10 % of kernel, respectively. Al-
though the thousand kernel weight (TKW) of
sorghum, a naked caryopsis, ranges from 3 to 80
g, grains of commercial sorghum hybrids have
a flattened-spherical shape (4 mm long, 2 mm
wide, and 2.5 mm thick) with a TKW of 25 – 35
g, test weight (TW) of 55 – 62 pounds per bushel
(lb/bu), and grain density of 1.38 g/cm3 [76].
Sorghum is broadly classified in two classes,
i.e., tannin sorghums and nontannin sorghum,
irrespective of the grain color. The color of the
grains depends on the color of the pericarp,
whereas the presence or absence of tannins de-
pends on the presence or absence of testa in the
inner pericarp. All sorghums contain phenolic
compounds, but not tannins. About 99 % of US
sorghums are of the nontannin type.
Sorghum is a major staple food crop in many
African countries and in India where agricul-
tural and environmental conditions do not fa-
vor the production of other grain crops. Thus,
it is critical for food security in the semiarid
tropics of Africa, Asia, and Latin America [77].
In the Western Hemisphere, where more than
40 % of sorghum is produced, it is used primar-
ily as an ingredient in livestock feeds. Based on
the types of end-uses, sorghums referred to as
(a) grain sorghums - short, mechanically har-
vested varieties used in food and feed; (b) for-
age sorghums – tall, yielding fodder and grain
Cereals 35
for livestock and foods; (c) sweet sorghums –
juicy leaves and stem used for sugar, syrup, and
alcohol production, and (d) grassy sorghum –
tall stems for grazing silage and hay [75].
As shown in 2004 this ancient grain may have
unique health benefits, because of high antioxi-
dant levels related to the content of polyphenolic
compounds and sorghum wax, containing poly-
icosanols, which may be important in cardiac
health. Therefore, the ancient grain sorghum has
drawn new interest and promises to become an
important cereal grain in the 21st century as a
potential staple food for people with celiac dis-
ease; because of high antioxidant and wax levels
for nutritional and health claims; and because of
its drought-resistance and good production with
limited water [39].
Millet is a generic term implying “small
seeded grain” and thus, the variations in mil-
lets are quite large. Millets and sorghum account
for only 4.13 % of the total world cereal grain
production with approximately 28 and 57.9 ×
106 t, respectively (Table 1). Moreover, among
all cereal grains, the average yield is the lowest
with 7.68 dt/ha (768 kg/ha) for millet, followed
by 13.97 dt (1397 kg)/ha for sorghum (Table 2).
Both are, however, extremely important staple
foods in semiarid and sub-humid zones. Two
broad categories of millet species include pearl
millet (Pennisetum americanum [L.] Leeke) and
the small and/or minor millet. Pearl millet, also
known as bulrush millet, is the world’s sixth
most important cereals. Pearl millet has the
largest seed and is the most widely grown of
all the millets. Because of its highest drought
tolerance, it is grown primarily in the dry Sahel
zone across Africa and in the semiarid areas in
India.
7.8. Maize (Corn)
Maize (Zea Mays L. ssp. mays), a diploid plant
with 10 chromosomes (x = 10, 2n = 20) is na-
tive to the Americas and is their most impor-
tant cereal crop. Maize originated in Mexico,
evolving from the wild grass Teosinte (Zea Mays
sp. Mexicana). Maize was domesticated and
grown as a crop by Native Americans as early
as 5000 b.c. in Mexico’s valley of Tehuacan.
Maize became a symbol of religion and pros-
perity in the Mayan civilization. Maize spread
36 Cereals
northward to the USA and Canada and south-
ward to Argentina. In 1492, the explorer Christo-
pher Columbus discovered maize, known as
“mahyz”, this staple food of the Native Ameri-
cans in the New World. Maize was transplanted
to Spain following Columbus’s discovery and
quickly spread across Europe and to Africa and
Asia from Spain [78].
In addition to being an economically impor-
tant crop plant, maize is a model plant for study-
ing genetics, because one of the major contribu-
tions of maize genetics was to the field of cy-
togenetics: maize cytogeneticists were the first
to demonstrate that chromosomes are individ-
ually recognizable by their lengths, arm ratios,
and other physical features and that physical ex-
change of chromosome segments accompanies
genetic recombination. Through various breed-
ing and genetics biotechnology and/or genet-
ical modification techniques, maize has been
selected for improved genotypes, kernel mod-
ification, and wide variations, tailored to the
quality parameters and quantitative traits de-
sired by consumers, including not only pro-
ducers but also end-users. Some varieties in-
clude high-protein/high-lysine “Opaque-2” and
“floury-2” maize; “waxy maize” with over 99 %
amylopectin, which grew on 0.22 × 106 ha in
the U.S. in 2000; “high-amylose maize or amy-
lomaize” with 80 % amylose; “high-oil hybrids”
with general accompaniment of reduction in
yield, but increased oil content and also alter-
ation of fatty acid balance.
Maize is a unique crop to be able to provide
so many diverse products by the dry-milling,
with maize grain fractions mainly for food uses,
but some industrial uses, including wallpaper
paste with fine grits; floor wax and hand-soap
with maize meals; dusting agents and hand-
soap with cones; fermentation media, explo-
sives, wallboard, and briquetting with maize
flour; and foundry binders, label adhesives, and
edge paste with specialty products. The esti-
mated uses of maize dry-milling products are
36.2 % for animal feeds, 54.3 % for food, and
9.5 % for industrial (nonfood) uses [78]. Typical
wet-milling industry products are maize sweet-
eners, starch, maize oil, maize gluten meal (60 %
protein) with byproducts including maize gluten
feeds (fiber, germ cake, and steep liquor solubles
to yield 21 % protein). The estimated utiliza-
tion of maize starch is 59 % unmodified starch,
11 % acid-modified starches, 5 % each of dex-
trins and oxidized starches, 3 % each of cationic
starches and pregelatinized starches, and 14 %
others. The zein (maize proteins) fraction, reco-
vered from maize gluten meal is highly resistant
to water and forms tough films and fibers, un-
like most other commercially available proteins.
Thus, zein has a number of industrial nonfood
applications, such as in paper sizings, paper and
paperboard adhesive, additives to oil cloth and
linoleum, felt stiffener, pharmaceuticals (bind-
ing and seal coating tablets), varnish substitutes,
printing inks, cork binding, spun textile fibers,
floor coatings, and paper coatings.
Since the 1980s, maize processing in the
U.S. nearly tripled from 16.7 × 106 t (0.659
× 109 bushel) in 1980 to 50 × 106 t (1.968 ×
109 bushel) in 2000; the biggest increase was
for fuel alcohol production, which rose nearly
20fold from 0.889 × 106 t (35 × 109 bushel) in
1980 to 15.93 × 106 t (627 × 109 bushel) in
2000 and 17.53 × 106 t (690 × 109 bushel) in
2001. Use of ethanol for blending with gaso-
line has been encouraged by reduced federal
and state tax rates on gasoline blends. The fu-
ture prospects of maize products to replace those
currently derived from nonrenewable resources,
such as petroleum and minerals, and to pos-
sess environmentally-friendly properties will in-
crease demand for maize in nonfood and non-
feed industrial products such as plastics as build-
ing materials[78].
7.9. Pseudocereals
7.9.1. Buckwheat
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is the best
known pseudocereal. It belongs to the knotweed
(Polygonaceae) family, of which several genus
and cultivars are grown. Fagopyrum tataricum is
probably the most widely planted cultivar. Orig-
inating in China, buckwheat came in the late
Middle Ages to Europe and has spread to Rus-
sia and to Japan. It was always a poor people’s
food, grown on poor soils, but recently, buck-
wheat has gained interest as a healthy food and
has been used in ways other than the traditional
dishes [79]. As estimated by FAO, buckwheat
production worldwide was 3.6 × 106 t in 1990,

has reached as much as 4.4 × 106 t in 1992, and
has fallen down to about 2.6 × 106 t in 1999 [79].
Dehulled and milled to flour or groats buck-
wheat is considered a nutritious food, rich in
high-quality proteins of high biological value
with a well-balanced amino acid composition
rich in lysine. It also contains considerable
amounts of alanine and fagonin (a specific ami-
no acid), and a relatively high level of dietary
fiber. The proteins consist mostly of globulins,
but the prolamin fraction seems to be absent.
This makes buckwheat suitable for celiac pa-
tients.
The buckwheat seed contains flavonoids,
which are reduced in dehulling and milling, but
both are used as therapeuticals containing rutin
[79 – 81]. Almost all parts of the buckwheat
plant are used, green plants and leafs are fed to
cattle (but with care because the rutin is light-
sensitive and may cause colored skin spots),
and for extraction of the pharmaceutical rutin.
As food, buckwheat is used mainly in break-
fast cereals, as mush-porridge, in soups, as re-
placement for rice, for pasta products, but also
prepared in various traditional and gluten-free
dishes. There are quite a number of recipes for
bread and cookies from both pure buckwheat
flour and when added to wheat or maize flour
[80]. Even the hulls can be used to fill pillows
or as a packing aid.
7.9.2. Amaranth
In pre-Columbian times, the amaranth grain
(Amaranthus caudatus) was, with maize and
beans, a basic food in the New World. Quite
a number of other names in Spanish and In-
dian dialects exist, including sangoracha, achita,
and kiwicha. Because of its use in pagan ritu-
als and human sacrifice, the Spanish conquista-
dors and missionaries forbade the cultivation and
the use of amaranth [82]. Other than this, ama-
ranth was used as pot herbs, as medical plants,
and as vegetable in China, India, and in parts of
Africa and Europe. About 30 years ago amaranth
started to be an attractive crop again but has not
yet achieved the popularity it had. There are at
present no exact data on production of amaranth,
except that amaranth has been grown on more
than 1000 000 ha in Russia and China, and that
the produced amounts are not enough to meet the
Cereals 37
demands of potential consumers. In many indus-
trial countries, amaranth is grown as an ecolog-
ical or biological product, and the taste of dif-
ferent amaranth cultivars seem not to meet the
taste expectations of many of consumers; both
are obstacles in gaining expected popularity on
the market [82].
In addition to A. caudatus, about 60 species
are known, such as A. cruentus and A. hypocon-
driacusas grain amaranth, and other as vegetable
and weed amaranth. Amaranth grain is a small
seed with a diameter of about 1 mm, coated part-
ly with a ring-shaped thin coat, and thus it is not
necessary to dehull it before use as food or feed.
Although amaranth seed is considered rich in
starch, it is also higher in protein (14 – 16 %)
than cereals in general. The amino acid compo-
sition of amaranth proteins is nutritionally very
beneficial because its lysine content is compa-
rable with that of soybeans. The fat content (6 –
8 %) is also higher than in cereals, which limits
storage time and interferes with the process of
extrusion cooking.
Amaranth is usually boiled to mush-porridge
and lime-cooked (to replace the maize in tor-
tillas), popped by short and dry heat, but can
also be blended with wheat for bread and pasta
products (not higher than 10 – 25 %) [83]. The
extruder-cooked amaranth is used as breakfast
cereal or granola bars. Further uses are in fer-
mented foods (comparable to soy sauce), protein
concentrate production, starch and starch hydro-
lysis products as well as oil products.
7.9.3. Quinoa
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) is originally
from the higher Andean region of South Amer-
ica but is also found in Mexico and far away in
Himalaya [84]. There is an evidence that quinoa
has been cultivated for more than 7000 years.
The worldwide 5-year average annual produc-
tion is estimated as about 18 000 t from 1970 to
1974 and over 45 000 t from 1995 to 1999 [84].
The grains are small (diameter 1 – 2.6 mm),
but enveloped in a dry two-layered pericarp that
requires dehulling before use as food. The grains
are protein- (about 14 %) and fat- (about 9 %)
rich, and the content of total dietary fiber (about
13 %) is also high. The somewhat high content
of saponins and other antinutrients reduces its
38 Cereals
use as food, and processing to food includes
techniques to remove saponin. The removal of
saponins is traditionally performed by washing
or by physical abrasion. A technique based on
both processes has proved to be most effective,
whereby loss of nutrients is minimized.
Dry-milling makes it possible to obtain whole
kernel flour as well as two fractions of milling
products: the protein- and fat-rich bran frac-
tion and a starch-rich flour fraction. To achieve
starch gelatinization, flour has to be boiled, or
dry-cooked by high-temperature short-time ex-
trusion. The flour is mostly used as porridge or
instant infant porridge because of its high energy
and of high protein quality in food. Quinoa flour
can be used also to produce bread and cookies
[83] and is gluten-free, which makes it appropri-
ate for celiac patients. It is used in malting and
fermentation, and as a raw material for starch
production. Washed-out saponins are useful in
beer brewing or the hygiene industry, where sur-
face active substances are required as foamers
[84].
8. Economic Aspects and Outlook
Cereals are traditionally considered food and
feed grains. However, during the last decades,
special market situations have encouraged ex-
ploring industrial uses of cereals [68]. Ce-
real grains, milled products, and byproducts of
milling are finding increasing uses in a variety
of nonfood applications.
First of all, the straw as well as the grain can
be used as renewable biomass. Residues and by-
products of cereals are excellent sources of fur-
fural (→ Furan and Derivatives, Chap. 3), a ba-
sic raw material in many industrial technologies.
The biomass can be pyrolyzed to produce sug-
ars, olefins, charcoal, and gaseous fuel. Carbo-
hydrates can be hydrolyzed to sugars, which can
be fermented to make ethanol, a potential source
for ethylene and butadiene. Biomass can be di-
gested by anaerobic bacteria to produce meth-
ane.
Cereal polymers (carbohydrates and pro-
teins) can be converted to monomers, which are
basic raw materials. Equally promising are novel
uses of undegraded polymers. Examples are the
modification of starch and graft polymerization
to give new polymers. A small amount of dry-
milled corn products are used as pregelled corn
flours in foundry cores and molds, in ore re-
fining, in building materials, as binders, in fer-
mentation, in oil-well drilling mud, as adhesives,
as binders in paper, paperboard, and corrugated
products. Wheat or low-grade wheat flours have
also a broad application in industrial uses: in pa-
per sizing and coating, in the plywood industry
and in detergent formulations. Gluten is used in
paper manufacture; in surface active agents; and
in adhesives, monosodium glutamate and glu-
tamic acid, coatings, and gums. Wheat germs are
raw material for the production of antibiotics, vi-
tamins, pharmaceuticals, and skin conditioners.
Finally cereals are a very important source of
energy. The production of alcohol as a source of
fuel has been a subject of many investigations.
In the USA, South Africa, Australia, and espe-
cially Europe, several companies are engaged
in producing alcohol from cereals. The average
world cereal production is now more than 2 ×
109 t/a. Cereals are the most important stable
food in the world. Only cereals have the po-
tential to support the world human population
with the needed amounts of energy and pro-
teins. In some countries, up to 80 % of food calo-
ries are provided by cereals or cereal products.
In other countries, this percentage has dimin-
ished, as meat production has grown, down to
20 % of caloric intake. Worldwide cereal pro-
duction, primarily due to increased yields, has
caught up with the world population. Taking into
consideration the very large differences in yields
(dt/ha) that exist in different areas, further yield
increases depending on economic circumstances
can be expected. Genetically modified organism
(GMO)-breeding could be an important factor in
increasing yields by reducing crop losses caused
by insects and special growing conditions.
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